'INSTYLE' MAGAZINE LISTS CROATIA AMONG SEVEN TOP TOURIST DESTINATIONS IN THE WORLD
 

ZAGREB, July 8(Hina) - The latest issue of American fashion magazine 'InStyle' listed Croatia among the seven top tourist destinations in the world ('Seven Great Global Getaways'), recommending a trip to Croatia for the country's natural beauties, clean sea and historic and cultural heritage, the head of the New York office of the Croatian National Tourist Board, Nena Komarica, said on Friday. 'InStyle' magazine, which has a circulation of 1.6 million, published an article headlined 'Dalmatian Coast, Croatia', giving reasons for travel to Croatia.

The article says that apart from natural beauties, Croatia also has various styles of architecture. The author particularly recommended a visit to the southern Adriatic town of Dubrovnik, saying it was the cultural centre of the country, a trip to Trogir which, according to the author, reminds of Venice, and the Island of Hvar, which has already been listed as one of the 10 most beautiful islands in the world.

The magazine also published photos of Hvar, Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg, for whom it said they visited Croatia by yacht.

(Hina)

http://www.hina.hr/nws-bin/genews.cgi?TOP=hot&NID=ehot/zanimljivosti/H7084576.4ye

HRVATSKA KATOLICKA MJISIJA ASTORIA
POZIVA VAS NA

KONCERT DUHOVNE GLAZBE

NATUPAJU MLADI IZ ZUPE SOLIN KOD SPLITA,
“PAPA BENDâ€?

PREDVODJENI ZUPNIKOM
DON VINKOM SANADEROM


NEDJELJA, 10. SRPNJA (JULY) U CRKVI MOST PRECIOUS BLOODSVETA MISA U 10,45 AM.
KONCERT ODMAH NAKON SVETE MISE U DONJOJ CRKVI

SVI STE DOBRO DOSLI
 

Croatia parliament approves Euro 2012 joint bid
 

Thu Jul 7, 2005 4:11 PM BST
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ZAGREB, July 7 (Reuters) - Croatia's parliament gave its support on Thursday to a joint bid with Hungary to stage the 2012 European soccer championships finals. Hungary's parliament approved the bid earlier this week.

It is Croatia's second attempt to host the tournament after a joint bid with Bosnia for the 2008 finals failed.

The other bidders for 2012 are Greece, Italy, Russia, Turkey and Poland and Ukraine jointly. The decision will be made in December 2006.

Austria and Switzerland are joint hosts of Euro 2008.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldFootballNews&storyID=URI:urn:newsml:reuters.com:20050707:MTFH54978_2005-

Croatia: World Bank Helps Increase

Croatia’s Competitiveness Through Investments

July 7 2005

Press Release - World Bank

The World Bank today approved a US$ 40 million loan for a Science and Technology Project for Croatia. The project will help to improve the competitiveness of Croatian industry both in domestic and foreign markets.

Croatia has made significant progress in its transition towards a market economy. However, the Government of Croatia recognizes that more remains to be done to improve the competitiveness of the Croatian economy and propel it forward on a path to sustained economic growth. An increased productivity and technological base and strengthened linkages among Research and Development (R&D) Institutions, the scientific community, and industry will help enterprises compete more effectively and facilitate Croatia’s economic integration with global markets. In addition, upgrading the technological capabilities of firms is an important step in Croatia’s future accession to the European Union.

The Project is comprised of three main components:

¡ restructure R&D Institutions to increase the focus on applied research while maintaining scientific excellence;

¡ upgrade technological capabilities of private enterprises by providing financing support for technology startups, technology-based companies and R&D centers;

¡ engage the Croatian scientific Diaspora in joint projects and other initiatives, to transfer their knowledge and skills for the benefit of Croatian society, as well as to encourage the scientists to return to Croatia.

"The Project will build on the great depth of scientific knowledge in Croatian Research and Development institutions and will help bring more innovation into the market. It will also help to reduce ‘brain drain’ as well as use the knowledge and resources accumulated by the Croatian Diaspora to national advantage," said Anand K. Seth, World Bank Country Director for Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania.

The Science and Technology Project will yield a positive return for Croatia’s economy in the long run by reducing the burden of R&D Institutions on the state budget. Local private companies will benefit from increased incomes, improved competitiveness, raised market share, and positive impact on exports.

The Project was prepared in collaboration among key partners: the Ministry of Science, Education and Sport, the Brodarski Institute, the Business Innovation Center for Croatia, and the Ruđer BoĹĄković Institute.

The project has a maturity of 15 years, including a five-year grace period.

Croatia joined the World Bank in 1993. Since then, commitments to the country total approximately US$1.2 billion for 32 operations.

http://www.harolddoan.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4298

Remembering Srebrenica

Friday, July 08, 2005
Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees

SREBRENICA, Bosnia and Herzegovina, July 8 (UNHCR) – The view from Jasmin Muminovic's home across the Drina River is one of the most spectacularly beautiful panoramas in the Balkans. But the 33-year-old former soldier sees only nightmares.

Jasmin was severely wounded while serving as a soldier in the national army in the very early days of a series of wars which ripped apart the old Yugoslav Republic in the 1990s and created a series of new countries.

Invalided from the front in the newly declared independent state of Croatia to his native village, he discovered that his own homeland in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina had also plunged into war. Within days, he and nearly 50 fellow Muslims, or Bosniaks, were rounded up by their old neighbours and new enemies, ethnic Bosnian Serb troops.

The majority of the Bosniak male prisoners were summarily executed. Jasmin was spared by a fluke of war at the last moment when his captors spotted his old Yugoslav army pack and freed him in a moment of mercy.

Further tragedy befell the Muminovic family, however, when Jasmin's brother was killed as the fighting continued. Jasmin eventually ended up defending an obscure village tucked snugly into the hills of eastern Bosnia which would soon become a worldwide symbol of the depravity of the conflict, the emergence of a chilling tactic of war which became known as 'ethnic cleansing,' and the failure of the international community to protect an innocent civilian population despite solemn promises to do just that.

Ultimately, the impending catastrophe also hastened the intervention of U.S. and NATO forces, an end to the fighting and the start of attempts to patch the region together again.

Genocide

Srebrenica entered the world's conscience during its darkest moment. On July 11, 1995, Serb units which had besieged the region for months – an area the U.N. had declared a protected zone – overran the town. Jasmin and thousands of other men escaped through the surrounding forests and hills. After seven days of running a gauntlet of ambushes, feints, hand-to-hand fighting, eating only unripe fruits and leaves along the escape trail, Jasmin reached safety and, as he described it recently, "I escaped from hell to heaven in a few short seconds." Many of his colleagues were cut down in the fighting or were captured and executed.

In Srebrencia, women and children and the men who stayed behind fled in panic as the Serbs advanced, down the only road out of town to the headquarters of a battalion of Dutch soldiers who were there obstensibly to protect them. As the outnumbered U.N. blue berets watched haplessly, men and young boys were ruthlessly separated from the females, marched away and subsequently massacred over a five-day period.

Nearly 8,000 civilians were slaughtered in the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II. The International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague last year judged the action as genocide.

On Monday, July 11, the town and a chastened international community commemorate the 10th anniversary of the massacre. Some 1,326 victims exhumed from more than 60 mass graves and whose remains were identified by DNA testing have already been buried at a memorial site a few miles down the valley from Srebrenica at a place called Potocari, directly opposite the brooding and abandoned headquarters of the Dutch troops in a former battery factory.

A further 610 victims are being buried during the remembrance service on Monday, expected to attract as many as 30,000 people, including surviving wives, daughters and children of the dead men, regional and international diplomats and statesmen.

Jasmin will not attend, left instead to brood with his own nightmares at his home, gazing across the Drina into neighbouring Serbia.

"I dream of dead bodies," he said. "I dream of dead friends, of endless war, of blood, of being hunted down."

A tragic symbol

Srebrenica is not only a symbol of the Balkans recent blood past, but also a gauge of how much progress, or lack of progress in the eyes of some analysts, has been made since the guns fell silent and the Dayton Peace Accord was initialled 10 years ago this coming November.

Physically, the town, a narrow strip of buildings running along a valley floor and surrounded by blood-soaked hills, still has the appearance of a battered ghost town. More than 6,000 buildings were destroyed in the municipality, and many remain gutted.

Security has improved, but remains fragile. Only days before the official commemoration, a large amount of explosives and detonators were discovered near to the burial site.

Before the war, 37,000 people lived in Srebrenica, 73 percent of them Bosniaks and 23 percent ethnic Serbs. Today, 6,000 Serbs and 4,000 Muslims live there, reflecting both the precipitous drop in the overall population and a major change in its ethnic makeup.

Survivors have been painfully slow to return.

"In 2001 we couldn't help any civilians because there were virtually no returnees to Srebenica to help," according to Udo Janz, the representative of the U.N. refugee agency in Bosnia. "We could count them on one hand."

Since then, the pace of return, both to Srebrenica and across Bosnia and Herzegovina, has picked up. Despite setbacks and an uncertain future, Janz insists that "what has happened in Bosnia and Srebrenica is, in many ways, a modest miracle."

Following a war in which at least 200,000 persons were killed, 2.2 million made homeless and an entire population deeply traumatized, "more than 1 million people in Bosnia have gone home in the last 10 years, even to a place where genocide took place," he said.

Paddy Ashdown, the High Representative of the international community, also used the word 'miracle' to describe an admittedly delicate situation: "The miracle in Bosnia is how much has been done in 10 years," he said. "A sixteenth of the population was killed, more than in France after World War II, half the population made homeless, 90 percent of the buildings destroyed. We have lost touch with how long it takes; healing is always measured in decades."

Jasmin Muminovic agrees that reconciliation will take a very, very long time.

"Not in my lifetime," he said. "Maybe in the lifetime of my grandchildren who will be able to forget what happened."

A major role

UNHCR has been involved in the Balkan crisis from its very earliest days. Along with other humanitarian agencies, it was helping as many as 3.5 million people throughout the entire region at the height of the crisis.

To feed its citizens, UNHCR launched a 3½-year airlift into the besieged Bosnian capital of Sarajevo which eventually became the longest-running humanitarian air bridge in history.

After the Dayton Peace Accord was initialled on November 21, 1995, the refugee agency began to assist the huge population of civilians who had been uprooted in their own countries or who had fled as refugees to neighbouring states to go home.

In September last year, the agency officially announced that more than 1 million uprooted persons had returned to Bosnia, including nearly half a million to regions where they were in a minority and thus both more vulnerable and in need of more assistance and protection.

Several hundred thousand other displaced persons permanently settled overseas and dropped off the monitoring screens of agencies such as UNHCR.

Across Bosnia, around half of the estimated 500,000 homes damaged or destroyed during the fighting have been repaired, according to Janz, as an estimated $5 billion in international aid flooded into the country.

The U.N. refugee agency itself spent an estimated $500 million since Dayton came into effect on housing reconstruction, de-mining programmes, essential infrastructure repair, establishing a legal aid network, the provision of basic humanitarian assistance, and other quick support projects.

The number of troops from the United States, Europe and other countries sent to enforce security dropped from a high of 69,000 to a current level of around 7,000 as the overall situation improved.

But the situation remains fragile. Nearly 300,000 civilians are still waiting to go home, though Bosnia and neighbouring Croatia and Serbia and Montenegro earlier this year agreed to try to get everyone back to their towns and villages by the end of 2006.

UNHCR has been reducing its own presence and programmes for the last several years and will continue to do so.

The massive inflow of international aid is steadily declining and the economy is barely limping along. The national unemployment rate is around 40 percent and up to 50 percent of the population live at or below the poverty line.

"A couple of years ago the overriding issue was security, security, security," Udo Janz said. "Today it is the economy, stupid."

The new buzz word in Bosnia is 'sustainability' – whether the gains achieved in the last few years can be maintained in such an unfavorable economic climate or whether the country could begin to backslide.

If overall security has improved immeasurably, some 10,000 suspected war criminals remain at large and true closure may never be achieved until at least many of them are called to answer for their crimes.

At the Srebrenica memorial, a marble obelisk spells out both a hope and a warning to future generations:

May grievance become hope
May revenge become justice
May mothers' tears become prayers
That Srebrenica
Never happens again
To no one and nowhere

At the foot of the plinth, a large bunch of red roses lie wilted in the warm summer sunshine.

By Ray Wilkinson
in Srebrenica

posted by KosovaReport @ 11:48 AM 1 comments

1 Comments:
At 8:27 PM, Anonymous said...
I remember Srebrenica, I remember Bosnia, and I remember how Europe stood by. No words for this.

http://kosovareport.blogspot.com/2005/07/remembering-srebrenica.html

Review of the CHILDREN’S ILLUSTRATED CROATIAN DICTIONARY

English – Croatian / Croatian - English

By Katarina Tepesh

Young readers learning Croatian language will love the 100 page full-color illustrations in the “Children’s Illustrated Croatian Dictionary.â€? They will find this dictionary easy to understand: when you look up the word ‘village’ you not only find translation ‘selo’ with pronunciation ‘sel-oh,’ you will also find an illustration of the village.

This “Children’s Illustrated Croatian Dictionaryâ€? will help to build a child’s understanding of Croatian language and will help them to improve spelling skills.

It’s also a great gift for a Croatian child learning English language.

Fun and easy to use, the “Children’s Illustrated Croatian Dictionaryâ€? is the ideal choice for elementary school children who are beginning to expand their vocabulary. The intuitive pronunciation guides make it easy to use. Hundreds of bright illustrations contribute to vocabulary information and make this book a treasure.

The “Children’s Illustrated Croatian Dictionaryâ€? is an invaluable reference book for young readers. It was developed in consultation with experts in the teaching field, Liliana Pavicic, B.A., B.Ed., M.Ed. Her prior teaching experience ranges from grade 1 through grade 8. Prior to teaching, Pavicic was a flight attendant and Croatian language interpreter and translator. Pavicic is also co-author of two cookbooks. Learn more about them by visitingwww.thebestofcroatiancooking.com 

Hippocrene Books, Inc. 171 Madison Avenue, NY, NY 10016
www.hippocrenebooks.com  $11.95

Croatia: Rockwool Group to invest 75 mil. euros in new plant

12:50 - 08 July 2005 - The Rockwool Group, a leading world manufacturer of mineral wool insulation for thermal, fire and acoustic protection, will build a rock wool manufacturing factory in the town Potpican in Istria, Croatian Economy Minister Branko Vukelic said , The investment worths 75 million euros.


The plant is to start operating in mid-2007 and it will sell its products in Croatia and on the southern European market, Vukelic told Hina. "Initial establishment costs are estimated at approx. EUR75 million - an investment which will cover construction, equipment and machinery, and staff training. For the Rockwool Group, the investment expenditure in 2005 is still expected to be EUR150 million," reads a press release the Rockwool Group issued on its web site..

The plant will employ 130 workers full time and there are plans to increase the number of employees to 200 over the next five years, with the indirect employment of another 130 people.

The importance of this investment is also in producing positive effects on other companies that want or intend to invest in Croatia, the minister said, adding that this greenfield investment also enhances Croatia's image.

The investment is backed also by local authorities.

In 1937, Gustav Kahler set up Rockwool's first factory near Copenhagen, Denmark. By the end of the 1990s Rockwool had 21 factories in Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Wales, France, Canada, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Russia and Italy. In 2003, the Rockwool Group is represented in more than 30 countries worldwide - with production in 14 countries from Canada in the West to Malaysia in the East.

The group's annual turnover is one billion euros.

http://www.reporter.gr/fulltext_eng.cfm?id=50708125014

Croatia improves tourism infrastructure
 

Jul 07, 05 | 9:33 am

More than eight million foreign tourists visited Croatia last year and the Croatian government is expecting more than 10 million in the next years. Thanks to the country’s supportive tourism private sector in tourism for efforts in improving the industry’s infrastructure.

Hotels
Private and state investors spent 400 million euro last winter for hotel modernization older and construction. New small hotels, summerhouses, camping sites and restaurants infrastructure were established as a result. Previously state-owned hotels have also been revamped to meet international standards. Melia Sol and Thomas Cook are two examples.

Airports
The government announced it will bring financial support for the construction of six new airfields, a 800-meter runway of 800 meters private airplanes, air taxi and rescue flights to the mainland and for short commuter air traffic to existing international airports.

Airlines
Croatia is celebrating the creation of two new air carriers. Sun Adria Airlines, based in the Croatian capital Zagreb, started the scheduled flights to several European destinations, including Germany, using two Fokker 100 in the fleet. Dubrovnik Airline, based in Dubrovnik and jointly founded by the Croatian Atlantic Shipping Company and Dubrovnik Airport Authority, is providing summer charters and scheduled using MD-83s.
A third carrier, named European Coastal Airlines, is expected to be established within the next few weeks.

Highways
The 380 kilometers long highway across mountain terrains between capital Zagreb and Split, the most important tourism center, finally opened June 29. Work is set to begin on Dubrovnik highway.

Croatia is a relatively small (56,500 square kilometers and 4.49 million inhabitants) independent post communist country (former a part of Yugoslavia) in southeast Europe at Adriatic Sea. Tourism contribution to the country’s GDP is approximately 20 percent. Picturesque fishing villages, old antique and medieval towns with unique architecture are among its tourist attractions.

By Jan Blazej

Zagreb, Croatia (eTurboNews)
http://travelvideo.tv/news/more.php?id=5842_0_1_0_M

Anybody traveling to Croatia from New York?
 

If anybody travels from New York to Croatia in the next day or two, please email me at letters@croatianworld.net

Thank you,

Nenad

Croatian Ambassador Neven Jurica to visit

Adriatica Village at Stonebridge Ranch

By TRICIA SCRUGGS McKinney Courier-Gazette
Croatian Ambassador Neven Jurica has accepted an invitation to visit the site of one of McKinney's most anticipated planned communities, Adriatica Village at Stonebridge Ranch.

According to a statement released Friday by the Blackard Group, on July 7, Jurica will tour the 44-acre development on the southeast corner of Stonebridge Drive and Virginia Parkway that seeks to replicate a coastal Croatian village "in the heart of Stonebridge Ranch."

"This project received lots of publicity in Croatia," said spokesperson Snjezana Pavlovic who was hired by Blackard to serve as a project consultant. "Everyone is building Italian and Greek-style villages, but Croatia is a relatively new name for many of the people here."

She said the main purpose of Jurica's visit is to see the conceptual plans and to witness the measures being taken to ensure the "project is going to be as authentic as we are proposing it to be."

In February, after nearly two years of wrangling over zoning and ordinance concerns the McKinney City Council gave Blackard's vision the green light along with more than a dozen pages of building regulations and restrictions to provide officials with more control of the every aspect of the project, from roofing materials to street pavers.

Following the zoning case, Don Paschal, a former city manager turned consultant who spoke on Blackard's behalf at the February public hearing, told the Courier-Gazette, that the rule was probably "the most stringent ordinance the city has ever considered to date...It's rare that you would find a developer who would be willing to be bound by these things."

The plan is to build the Mediterranean-style Adriatica Village project on the shoulders of Stonebridge Lake to resemble Supetar (St. Peter), Croatia, a small fishing village situated on a Croatian island on the Adriatic Sea.

Nearly 300 condominiums and 70 town houses will be included in the village with an estimated 225,000 square feet of commercial space. Limitations prevent construction of "big box" stores by capping square footage at 48,000.

Pavlovic said the first two structures will be commercial/retail buildings that so far will house a Keller Williams realty office, Starbucks and Blackard Group offices. Residential construction is slated for completion late in 2006.

"We are extremely excited that such a project is being developed in the United States. This is a premier example of a developer's determination to create an authentic atmosphere with many genuine elements," Ambassador Jurica said in a statement.

Previously, residents told city officials they feared the village would not materialize, leaving the city with more multi-family housing and adding students to a school district that is already struggling to keep up with the city's record growth.

"I think it's neat that they're having (Jurica) come because I think that once the project is completed it's going to be a benefit to the city," said Laurie Madeiros, a concerned citizen who has volunteered her time to monitor erosion controls for Stonebridge Lake.

Madeiros said at one point the project was suspended for a week by city officials after she and another resident documented failed control measures, but that "most of them have been resolved now."

"It's a complicated issue," she said. "So I have very mixed feelings about it."

Contact Tricia Scruggs at citynews@courier-gazette.com