Croatia News - CroatiaPress.com

Zagreb, May 20 (CP) – A German national suffered serious injuries during takeoff while attempting to fly a paraglider on the Kamena hill on the northern island of Krk on Monday.

The 44-year-old man who was not named was together with a group of paragliding enthusiasts when he attempted to take off and crashed into the rocks and sustained serious injuries.

He was taken to the Susak hospital in Rijeka and although his injuries are serious his life is not in danger.

Zagreb, May 20 (CP) – A Germanwings plane flying between the Croatian port of Split and German city of Stuttgart had to make an emergency landing after a bird got caught in its engine on Monday.

The incident happened at 2:20 p.m. on Monday when the plane carrying 82 passengers and crew members had to make the emergency move.

The passengers only managed to carry on with their journey at about 8 p.m. when a replacement plane arrived in Split.
 

Zagreb, May 20 (CP) — Croatian national carrier Croatia Airlines has added a new plane to its fleet on Monday after two of its planes suffered technical problems on Monday.

Croatia Airlines has added a new Dash-8 Q400 to its fleet, which is to gradually replace the ATR-42 planes it currently uses.

A total of four planes have been ordered from the Canadian Bombardier Corporation, the first joining the Croatian Airlines fleet on Monday.

It seems high time for Croatia Airlines to rejuvenate its fleet, as two of its ATR-42 planes suffered mechanical failure, both of them having to perform emergency landing and one even suffering an engine fire.

The company’s spokesperson maintained Croatia Airlines technical maintenance standards were above average.

Zagreb, May 19 (CP) – Three boys of whom the oldest is just eight years old are living in awful conditions without water and electricity and a mother who is unable to care for them due to a mental condition in a hut near the coastal port of Sibenik.

The hut, which serves as the children’s home, has no windows or doors, no running water and harbours an open sewage hole.

The mother has had some mental difficulties, which make her speech impaired, so the boys are hardly able to talk, while the father is mostly absent.

Although the community tried to help the family and the Caritas organisation built the hut they are living in now, but the family was unable to maintain sustainable living conditions.

None of the boys are going to school and neighbours have been reporting them for unsocial behaviour like throwing stones at them.

The social services have been informed of the situation two years ago and the local court has introduced proceedings for the boys to be put into care.

Zagreb, May 19 (CP) – Following an initiative from the association of veterans from Pakrac and Lipik charges were filed against 11 persons believed to have had commanding responsibility in the establishment of the Bucje prison camp during the Homeland war.

Some 250 detainees from the West Slavonia area had been kept there.

The documents for the charges were compiled by the veterans helped by an attorney with no assistance from authorities.

Zagreb, May 19 (CP) – A shop assistant in the coastal city of Split had suffered a terrible shock and had a lucky break, when she opened a box of bananas only to find a snake in it.

The grey and brown snake, which is some 30 centimetres long, had fled from the box as soon as the woman opened it.

The employees of the shop immediately called in the veterinary service, which had established that the snake was most probably venomous and found on banana plantations in Africa.

The origin of the bananas was actually Africa and the snake, being rather small had no trouble hiding in the box.

Zagreb, May 18 (CP) – A 23-year old Canadian citizen of Chinese origin was beaten up by a group of shaved head youths in the centre of Croatian capital Zagreb on Saturday.

The man was found curled up in a ball in Zagreb’s old city by a passer-by who called for help after she had discovered him and the emergency services took him to a hospital where it was established he suffered minor injuries.

He later told the police that he was attacked by a group of skinheads.

None of his personal effects were taken and the reason for the attack is being investigated and the perpetrators are being searched for.

The man arrived in Croatia just a day earlier.

There have been several attacks on people of different races in Zagreb over the past few years and skinheads are believed to have been behind all of them.

Zagreb, May 18 (CP) – A freak accident grounded helicopters flying to and from Split on Saturday and Sunday after a plastic bag got caught in the propeller and rendered a taking off helicopter unsafe to fly.

The indicted forced the officials to close down the heliodrome until Sunday.

The accident happened as a search and rescue operation was being mounted for a young man gone missing in the Zadar area and a plastic bag that flew over from a nearby building site got caught in the propeller.

The owners of the building site were warned to clear up all the dangerous debris as it could result in a fatal accident that was narrowly averted on Saturday.

Zagreb, May 18 (CP) – Croatia is to become a member of the Erasmus Mundus EU programme aimed at student cooperation securing them a possibility of studying abroad as of January 1, 2009.

The Organisation has been in place for 20 years now and has enabled so far a total of 1.7 million students to study abroad.

The Erasmus organisation also secures lecturers to work at foreign universities for a certain period.

The membership in the Organisation will enable Croatian students to join in and take advantage of a great opportunity of studying abroad.

Zagreb, May 17 (CP) – If a foreigner has an eye on obtaining Croatia papers he or she will have to fork out some €3,000, about half of what he or she would have to pay in EU countries.

Although Croatia has still not joined the EU there is a lot of interest for such shady business.

Those interested are mostly ex-Yugoslav nationals with ads popping up all over the place of those seeking or offering the ‘service’.

However, if someone was to pursue such course of action it is highly risky, as after the ‘marriage’ and according to Croatian laws the person must be registered in Croatia at the same address as his or her ‘spouse’ for at least five years and can only after that seek permanent residence.

Also, this is no guarantee for Croatian papers to be obtained, as Croatia has the discretion right to reject the claim.