Croatia

ICJ to rule in Croatia-Serbia dispute by February

BELGRADE -- A judgment in a dispute before the ICJ comprising a Croatian claim against Serbia and a Serbian counter claim of genocide will be reached by February.

This was announced by President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Peter Tomka, Tanjug reported.

The small and once neglected Croatian municipality of Stankovci - population 2,000 - is in line to get Croatia's first new airfield in decades, thanks to an ambitious mayor working with a big investor.

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Veljko Kadijevic, the wartime commander of the Yugoslav People’s Army, who was accused but never convicted of war crimes during the conflict in Croatia, has died in exile.

BELGRADE - President of the Coalition of Refugee Associations in Serbia Miodrag Linta has said that he agrees with Croatian President Ivo Josipovic's opinion that relations between the governments in Belgrade and Zagreb are stagnating and argues that the responsibility for this should be sought on the Croatian side.

BELGRADE - President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Peter Tomka has announced at a General Assembly of the United Nations meeting that a judgment in a dispute before the ICJ comprising a Croatian claim against Serbia and a Serbian counterclaim of genocide will be reached before the Court is renewed in February.

Croatia unveiled new tax policies on Thursday, which include a tax on bank savings, lower rates of income tax and new procedures for VAT collection.

The announced tax on bank savings of 12 per cent will affect about 400,000 citizens with money in savings accounts, about 50,000 of whom have 10 billion euro in savings, earning them 300 million euro from interest annually.

BELGRADE - Serbian and Croatian ministers of state administration Kori Udovicki and Arsen Bauk agreed on Thursday that both countries face similar problems in that field, but said that Croatia, as an EU member state, is a step ahead of Serbia in terms of regulating the state administration.

Most Balkan countries showed a marked improvement in their ratings in the World Bank's latest "Doing Business" report, which measures 189 countries on the basis of regulations that either enhance or suppress business activities.

Macedonia remains the regional leader in terms of ease in doing business, placed at 30th place in the rankings, moving up one place.

Croatia's Health Ministry is to take action aginst a growing number of hospitals that do not offers abortions because doctors oppose them for reasons of conscience.

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Serbia drops in WB business conditions ranking

WASHINGTON -- The World Bank has issued a prognosis of business conditions around the world for 2015 and ranked Serbia 91st out of 189 countries.

This represents a downgrade from last year's 77th spot, leaving only Bosnia-Herzegovina with a worse rank, at 107.