Croatia News - CroatiaPress.com

Zagreb, February 11 (CP) – According to the Glas Dalmacije Internet portal, the Swedish giant IKEA may be planning to open a store in Split, after the town-planning for Split has been changed, allowing construction at the location of Stinice.

IKEA has certain standards that all the locations of its stores need to match and among them is easy access to the store via public transport and up to 35 acres of land being put at its disposal.

All this may point at Stinice as the perfect location.

However, it is yet to be seen whether an agreement on this will be reached at some future meeting of the Split local authorities with IKEA representative and for actual construction work to replace speculation.

Zagreb, February 11 (CP) — It is still not clear whether the Turkish cargo ship which caught fire off the Northern Croatian coast last week will be towed to Trieste. 
Netherlands experts investigating the status of the ship for the past three days claim it will be ready for towing within 2 to 3 days. The vessel caught fire on Wednesday and posed a threat to the environment due to its hazardous cargo. The danger of pollution has been eliminated after the fire was put out, but the issue of the port where it will be towed remains open, although Trieste seems like the most probable solution.

Zagreb, February 11 (CP) — Cabinet members Agriculture Minister Bozidar Pankretic and deputy PM Damir Polancec will be meeting with representatives of the Kutina Petrochemical plant following the price of fertilizer increasing by as much as 44 percent.

Altough the price increase was expected, such a steep price hike has shocked farmers.

Minister Pankretic is planning to try and find a solution to the problem.

Zagreb, February 10 (CP) – Top Croatian athlete high jumper Blanka Vlasic has one yet another event on Sunday clearing 202 centimetres in Karlsruhe.

Vlasic’s closest opponent managed 195 centimetres with Blanka attempting, but not managing 198 centimetres and then deciding to lift the bar to 202 and clearing it second time around.

Vlasic did attempt 204 centimetres, but failed.

Marina Aitova of Kazakhstan came in second managing 195 centimetres, Annett Engel of Germany third with 189 centimetres.
 

Zagreb, February 10 (CP) – Attending the Security Policy meeting in Munich, Foreign Minister Gordan Jandrokovic said he was pleased with what had been accomplished at the meeting, particularly the fact he had met with his Slovene counterpart Dimitrij Rupel.

Jandrokovic also said that he had spoken to several officials of NATO during the meeting and was told the Organisation was ready to invite Croatia to become a member at the April summit to be held in Bucharest.

Zagreb, February 10 (CP) – A dog saved his owner’s life by alerting her to a fire raging in her home in Sesvete, near Croatia’s capital Zagreb, by barking.

The 50-year-old owner was sleeping in her home when she was woken up by the dog barking, The dog would not let up before the woman was fully awake.

The fire erupted in a family home, just three hours after midnight on Sunday morning. The blaze was started by a faulty wood stove.
 

Zagreb, February 10 (CP) – A young man’s prank ended up as a published interview in the Jutarnji List daily on Saturday stirring up the cabinet office and resulting in the paper’s apology to readers and the PM.

The unusual highly embarrassing mishap took place as the Jutarnji List daily editor Davor Butkovic relied on an anonymous e-mail address and some text messages as grounds for a genuine interview.

After the media blunder was discovered, a 23-year-old man reported to the paper saying that he was the one who impersonated Sanader, thinking that someone was playing a joke on him by sending the questions into his mailbox.

He decided to play along with the joke and sent the answers to the e-mail address the questions came from. The man said that as a prank he had obtained the mobile phone number of editor Butkovic and sent him New Year’s greetings and Butkovic for some reason thought this was the PM’s mobile phone number and continued contacts using it and requesting an interview.

The young man said he just could not resist seeing how far this would go, but said he was convinced he had not been taken seriously and was shocked to find the interview making the Saturday edition of Jutarnji List.
 

Zagreb, February 10 (CP) – Croatian skier Ivica Kostelic captured the third place in the German Garmisch Partenkirchen slalom.

Kostelic was fourth in the first run, improving his standing by one place in the second run and ending up third.

This was the first time this season that Kostelic made it onto the slalom podium.

The winner was Austria’s Reinfried Herbst, who led the first run, while Manfred Moelgg of Italy came in second.

In the World Cup slalom standings Kostelic is now in 8th position and holds the same position in the overal World Cup standings.

Zagreb, February 10 (CP) – A fire that broke out on Saturday in the Omis hinterland, not far from the coastal city of Split has been contained.

The fire engulfed some 30 acres of land, mostly pinewood forest and some olive groves and vineyards.

Some 50 firefighters supported by a water bomber tackled the blaze fighting at the same time gale-force winds, which forced the water bomber to turn back.

Zagreb, February 10 (CP) – Croatian government spokesperson Zlatko Mehun has reacted to the publishing of an interview with PM Ivo Sanader in Jutarnji List daily’s Saturday edition claiming it was made up, as the author of the interview Jutarnji List editor Davor Butkovic and PM Sanader had had no contact over the past few days, so there could not have been an interview, claims Mehun.

The interview titled Serb Radicals Are a Reason more for NATO Membership was allegedly obtained through e-mail messaging between editor Butkovic and PM Sanader.

The Jutarnji editorial board has published an apology to its readers and PM Sanader saying the interview had been the result of someone meddling with electronic communications.

The paper is investigating how this blunder could have happened.