Croatia News - CroatiaPress.com

Zagreb, February 8 (CP) – The Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Jandrokovic and his Slovene opposite number Dimitrij Rupel met at the fringes of the Munich Conference on Security Policy on Saturday, both professing the need for further bilateral talks on unresolved issues.

The two have described this first meeting as an important step towards this goal.

Rupel expressed hope that this marks the start of a new dynamic being introduced to the relations between the two countries and also expressed full support for Croatia’s access to the EU.

Minister Jandrokovic stressed that both sides were ready to resolve the issue of the Protected Ecology and Fisheries Belt (ZERP) in the Adriatic.

The relations between Croatia and Slovenia have been strained lately due to Croatia implementing ZERP against EU countries and Slovenia’s using its leverage as EU member to block certain chapters of Croatia’s EU accession negotiations

Zagreb, February 9 (CP) – A 27-year-old man was arrested in Croatia’s capital Zagreb after being spotted watching child porn in an Internet café.

The police were alerted and quickly traced the young man whose home was raided and child porn found on his computer.

The man has been arrested and will be investigated and then charged with having child pornography on his computer.

Zagreb, February 9 (CP) – Croatia has been promised a total of $250,000 and € 1 million following the incident of the Turkish ship carrying hazardous cargo igniting off the Croatian coast on Wednesday.

The funds have been pledged by insurers of the Turkish vessel.

Croatian Sea, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Bozidar Kalmenta has said that an investigation would be launched into possible irregularities in the rescue operation and the fire fighting on board the ship.

The ship was towed some 4 nautical miles from the Istrian coast on Friday evening in order for the wreckage to be inspected. In the meantime, the fire has been contained and the ship will most probably be taken to Trieste.

Zagreb, February 9 (CP) – The Croatian police were forced to intervene in a clash of two groups of protestors one group supporting and the other opposing the renaming of Marshall Tito Square in Croatian capital Zagreb.

The rallies of both groups were held at the same time and a clash of the two ideologies was inevitable.

While the Circle for the Square citizens’ initiative is calling for the renaming of Marshall Tito Square, the Association of Young Anti-fascists of the City of Zagreb wants the name to stay in place. The first group gathered some 1,000 protestors, the latter some 200.

Several protestors have been arrested.

Zagreb, February 9 (CP) – Charges were filed against four persons for fraud in the purchase of Croatian Telecom (T-HT) shares at privileged prices.

The four are all well-to-do business people including a high-profile football manager, who managed to secure more than five allowed ‘power of attorney’ certificates and in that way buy a considerable number of shares at privileged prices, making illegal profit.

Zagreb, February 8 (CP) – Although consumers’ organisations across the country are not in possession of data regarding how many consumers stayed off shopping the first full day of the shopping boycott, the are pleased with the response of the public and are calling on them to keep up the boycott for another six days in a bid for shop owners, chains and producers to cut prices.

The consumers’ organisations representatives have said that despite this protest, prices were rising daily with announcements of fertilizer prices going up 44 percent and pushing up the prices of food even further.

It has been stated that the shopping boycott was not aimed at anyone in particular, but the chain of production and sales in general.

The boycott is to end next Friday and the consumer associations are hoping it will have the exact effect it had in Italy and Greece – the cutting of prices of overpriced food items.
 

Zagreb, February 8 (CT) – Another day of unease at the Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) with total turnover amounting to 166.67 million kuna and 77 percent of the shares traded ending the day with a drop in their value.

The most traded shares were that to Croatian Telecom (T-HT) with trade totalling 18.9 million kuna, dropping to its lowest level in value of 291.80 kuna per share.

However, some shares gained value with Ingra gaining 2.67 percent and Ina 0.39 percent.

Crobex ZSE share index fell further for another 1.34 percent ending the day at 4.108 points, dropping a total of 21 points since the start of 2008.

Zagreb, February 8 (CP) – The fire that has been raging on the Turkish ship off the Croatian coast has been contained and Dutch expert firefighting unit is on board in a bid to put out the fire within the vessel.

Smoke is still billowing from the ship wreckage.

Now negotiations are under way with shipyards to broker which of them the ship would be towed to.

The 193-meter-long Turkish vessel, which has some nine tons of dangerous cargo and 200 lorries on board, as well as fuel in its tanks caught fire on Wednesday morning off the northern Croatian coast is now some 10 nautical miles away from the shore.

Zagreb, February 8 (CP) – World Bank’s chief economist for Croatia, Sanja Madjarevic Sujster has said speaking in Zagreb that the organisation expects Croatia’s economy to grow at a 4.5 percent rate in 2008, while the inflation should hover around 6 percent.

Madjarevic said that although the overall economic outlook for the EU and Croatia for 2008 was favourable, the economy growth slowdown and inflation rate expected are the result of the overall trends on the world economic market, the same happening in all world economies with inflation pushed up by the increase in food and oil prices.

Madjarevic stressed that fiscal tools should be used more actively in combating the current inflation rate, including the cutting of public spending, which would then leave some space for the lifting of some of the tax burdens on the economy.

Zagreb, February 8 (CP) – Former Croatian arms dealer Zvonko Zubak who sued Croatia for $200 million plus interest claiming he was never paid for the S-300 rocket system he had supplied Croatia with back in 1995.

Had Zubak not lost the court case, this would have been the priciest ruling in the history of the Croatian judiciary and the budget would have suffered the hardest blow yet.

Not only has Zubak lost the court proceedings, but he will also have to cover € 1 million in court fees.

The expired statute of limitations was the reason given for the court case to finally be thrown out after years of legal rengling.