Category Archives: Croatia

Croatia’s ruling conservatives win most seats in election, but without majority

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Led by prime minister Andrej Plenković, the Croatian Democratic Union won 60 seats out of 151 but face tough talks to gather a majority

Croatia’s ruling conservative party won the most seats in parliamentary elections, but not enough to form a government, according to almost complete official results.

The prime minister, Andrej Plenković’s Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) has won 60 seats in the 151-member assembly, results from more than 90% of the polling stations have showed. In the previous 2020 election, the party won 66 seats.

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‘It’s full of green areas’: mystery of Europe’s heat death hotspot

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Hot weather has proved deadlier in the Croatian city of Osijek than in any other European city but little is being done to work out why

The green LEDs on the cross outside the pharmacy read 38C for the second day running, but the noontime crowds in the centre of Osijek seemed untroubled by the danger that signalled. “We work in the sun but for us it’s no problem,” said Davor, 47, a bike courier with the food delivery service Wolt.

Though many living there may be unaware, this small Croatian city is Europe’s heat death hotspot. In the past two decades, hot weather has proved deadlier in Osijek than in any other city in Europe, a study in the Lancet medical journal found. The researchers modelled temperature and mortality data from the 854 biggest cities in Europe and found Croatians were most likely to died from the heat.

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Inquiry reviews convictions of ‘Croatian Six’ over 1979 Sydney bomb plot

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Judicial inquiry reviewing convictions of group jailed in 1981 over alleged terror plot to blow up Sydney targets

The testimony of a key witness and actions of a corrupt New South Wales police officer will be probed during an inquiry into the 1981 terror plot convictions of a group known as the ‘Croatian Six’.

The judicial inquiry, which began on Monday, will examine the possibility that Crown witness Vico Virkez may have been working for Yugoslavian intelligence services.

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Athens offers more support as Zelenskiy takes high-speed tour of Europe

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Ukrainian president also meets leaders of Serbia and Croatia in bid to broaden support base

Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s high-speed tour of Europe’s smaller countries continued in Athens on Tuesday, where he obtained further military and diplomatic support after securing a long-awaited commitment on the provision of F-16s at the weekend.

The Ukrainian president met Serbia’s president and Croatia’s prime minister at a Balkans summit in the Greek capital, while a day earlier Greece’s prime minister had said his country would help train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 jets.

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Croatian police looking for 10 handball players from Burundi missing from competition

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Players have not been heard from since leaving their accommodation last Wednesday

Police in Croatia are looking for 10 young handball players from Burundi who have disappeared before a world championship match.

The Primorje-Gorski Kotar county police department said efforts were under way to locate the players and determine the facts of their disappearance.

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‘Like a blowtorch’: Mediterranean gripped by wildfires as blazes spread in Croatia and Portugal

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‘There is no magical defence mechanism,’ says Greek prime minister as fires burn in northern Africa and southern Europe

Wildfires were burning in at least nine countries across the Mediterranean as blazes spread in Croatia and Portugal, with thousands of firefighters in Europe and north Africa working in extreme heat to contain flames stoked by high temperatures, dry conditions and strong winds.

High temperatures and parched ground sparked wildfires in countries on both sides of the Mediterranean, with at least 34 people killed in Algeria, where 8,000 firefighters on Tuesday battled blazes across the tinder-dry north. Fires burned in a total of 15 provinces, leading to the evacuation of more than 1,500 people.

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Croatia to join Schengen zone, but Romania and Bulgaria kept out

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Two refused countries will try again after Austria raised concerns about unauthorised immigration

Croatia has been given the green light to join Europe’s open travel zone, but Bulgaria and Romania were kept out because of opposition led by Austria over concerns about unauthorised immigration.

Croatia was cleared to become the Schengen zone’s 27th member after talks between the bloc’s interior ministers in Brussels. From 2023, people will not have to stop for border checks as they pass between Croatia and the rest of the zone.

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Shanghai declares third rare extreme heat warning of summer

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Temperatures of over 40C cause red alert in the city and test records as heatwave ravages parts of Europe

China’s most populous city, Shanghai, has issued its highest alert for extreme heat for the third time this summer as sweltering temperatures repeatedly tested records this week.

The commercial and industrial hub of 25 million people declared a red alert on Thursday, warning of expected temperatures of at least 40C (104F) in the next 24 hours. Temperatures soared as high as 40.6 C in the afternoon but fell short of Wednesday’s 40.9 C, which matched a 2017 record.

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Croatia scraps euro coin design over plagiarism controversy

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Scandal erupted after logo selected in contest to mark entry into eurozone looked like a copy of British photographer’s work

Croatia’s national bank announced a new tender for the country’s one-euro coin design after a plagiarism scandal led to the withdrawal of an earlier submission.

Croatia is preparing to adopt the euro currency in 2023 and last week unveiled the winners of a contest whose designs were set to be struck into the Balkan country’s new coins.

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‘A real miracle’: dog saves injured hiker stranded in Croatian mountains

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Dog kept man warm and safe until rescuers found him

A dog saved a hiker injured in the Croatian mountains by lying on top of him for 13 hours until they were rescued, according to local media.

The dog, called North, kept Grga Brkic warm after he fell while out hiking and was unable to move. The other two hikers with him were unable to reach them, so they raised the alarm.

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Violence in Belgium and Netherlands as Covid protests erupt across Europe

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Anger at government restrictions spreads to Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark and Croatia

Violence erupted at demonstrations in Belgium and the Netherlands over the weekend as tougher Covid-19 restrictions to curb the resurgent pandemic led to angry protests in several European countries.

Ten of thousands of people marched through central Brussels on Sunday to protest against reinforced restrictions imposed by the Belgian government to counter the latest rise in coronavirus cases. The march, which police estimated involved 35,000 people, began peacefully but descended into violence as several hundred people started pelting officers, smashing cars and setting rubbish bins on fire. Police responded with teargas and water cannon.

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Croatia violated rights of Afghan girl who was killed by train, court rules

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Madina Hussiny, 6, died after police refused to let her family apply for asylum and made them walk back to Serbia

After four years of legal struggle, the European court of human rights (ECHR) has ruled that Croatian police were responsible for the death of a six-year-old Afghan girl when they forced her family to return to Serbia via train tracks without giving them the opportunity to seek asylum.

The little girl, named Madina Hussiny, was struck and killed by a train after being pushed back with her family by the Croatian authorities in 2017.

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Croatian police seek to identify mystery woman found on perilous rock

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Woman who speaks ‘perfect English’ was found with no documents or phone and cannot say who she is

Croatian police have released a picture of a woman who they say speaks “perfect English” but is unable to tell them who she is or how she came to be found on a jagged outcrop of rock off the island of Krk.

The news website 24Sata said the woman, who appears to be in her 60s and has cuts and bruises to her face and body, was first spotted by a fisher at 10am on Sunday sitting on a rock in a bay near the village of Soline, in the north of the island.

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At least 10 dead and 44 injured in bus crash in Croatia after driver lost control

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Driver reportedly fell asleep on journey between Frankfurt and Pristina, the capital of Kosovo

At least 10 people have died after a bus swerved off a highway and crashed in Croatia, police have said.

The incident, believed to have happened when the driver fell asleep early on Sunday, has left at least 44 others injured, some seriously.

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Croatia and Italy renew feud over prošek and prosecco wines

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Italy tries for second time to block Croatia’s efforts to win special EU recognition for its dessert wine

Croatian winemakers have leapt to the defence of their centuries-old dessert wine, prošek, amid a renewed prosecco identity war sparked by Italy.

Italy said it would defend prosecco at all costs after Croatia applied to the European Commission for special recognition of prošek.

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Euro 2020: Uefa blocks rainbow light display at Germany v Hungary – live!

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“It was like a winter bath for the people’s souls.” Marcus Christensen looks at the Danish media reaction to last night’s excitement in Copenhagen.

Related: ’Now we take Wales’ – Danish media celebrates ‘magical’ night against Russia

If you’re struggling with live football cold-turkey this afternoon, I feel compelled to inform you that some intense, high-quality, low-scoring cricket is taking place in Southampton, where India are fighting back against New Zealand. And you can follow it here.

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Euro 2020: split loyalties as UK bars put up the bunting for Croatian fans

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Despite Covid restrictions, pubs are getting ready for supporters to see their team take on England

Ed Thomas has never shown the European Championships in his bar, but this time he’s hung up the bunting and will watch his team play their first Euro 2020 opening match with muted glee.

But who to support in today’s England v Croatia game, a “rematch” of the 2018 World Cup semi-final? For Thomas is half-Croatian and half-English.

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EU states cooperating informally to deny refugees asylum rights – report

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Beatings, thefts and dog attacks are just some of the border police practices migrants say they face when pushed back from Europe’s frontiers

Informal cooperation between states has prevented thousands of women, men and children from seeking protection in Europe this year, according to a report released by nine human rights organisations.

The Protecting Rights at Borders (Prab) initiative has recorded 2,162 cases of “pushbacks” at different borders in Italy, Greece, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Hungary carried out on the basis of bilateral agreements between countries, which resulted in them circumventing their responsibilities and pushing unwanted groups back outside the EU.

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Revealed: 2,000 refugee deaths linked to illegal EU pushbacks

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A Guardian analysis finds EU countries used brutal tactics to stop nearly 40,000 asylum seekers crossing borders

EU member states have used illegal operations to push back at least 40,000 asylum seekers from Europe’s borders during the pandemic, methods being linked to the death of more than 2,000 people, the Guardian can reveal.

In one of the biggest mass expulsions in decades, European countries, supported by EU’s border agency Frontex, has systematically pushed back refugees, including children fleeing from wars, in their thousands, using illegal tactics ranging from assault to brutality during detention or transportation.

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Croatian border police accused of sexually assaulting Afghan migrant

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Asylum seeker says she was threatened at knifepoint in latest in string of reports of violent pushbacks on Bosnia–Croatia border

  • Warning: this article contains graphic details of sexual abuse and violence that some readers may find upsetting

A woman from Afghanistan was allegedly sexually abused, held at knifepoint and forced to strip naked by a Croatian border police officer, during a search of a group of migrants on the border with Bosnia.

The European commission described it as a “serious alleged criminal action’’ and urged the Croatian authorities “to thoroughly investigate all allegations, and follow up with relevant actions”.

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