Ivo Josipovic

Ivo Josipovic has many strings to his bow, besides politics. Now the 65-year-old former Croatian president has written an opera about John Lennon.

Zoran Milanovic said on Monday that his decision to return state honours to Branimir Glavas was legally sound, even though he is on trial for alleged war crimes.

"Glavas asked for this, he sent a request, because he has been formally unconvinced for five years. If he had not asked me, I wouldn't have interfered," Milanovic told media.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic told the annual commemoration at Jasenovac on Thursday that the Independent State of Croatia, NDH, a fascist puppet state run by the Ustasa movement and supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, was "one of the most tragic periods in Croatian history".

Zoran Milanovic won the second round of the presidential election in Croatia on Sunday, according to preliminary results, after nearly 100 per cent of votes were counted.

The Social Democratic candidate and former prime minister took 52.70 per cent of the votes, comfortably beating his centre-right rival, incumbent president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, who won 47.30 per cent.

Croatian citizens on Sunday vote in the second round of the presidential election, which pits the incumbent conservative, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, against the Social Democratic former prime minister Zoran Milanovic.

Croatian citizens on Sunday vote in a presidential election whose outcome is hard to predict, given the strong polling of the top three candidates.

Croatian jurist and ex-President Ivo Josipovic told BIRN that a Zagreb court’s decision to reduce the prison sentence given to former Croatian Defence Council officer Marko Radic does not reflect the gravity of his crime.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has announced that a planned two-day visit to Croatia will go ahead on Monday and Tuesday - despite contined acrimony between the two countries, and after Serbia's Defence Minister claimed he could even be killed there.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic confirmed on Wednesday that he had accepted Tuesday's invitation from Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic to visit Zagreb.

"I consider it is important for our country to receive this invitation; we accept that invitation, it [meeting] will be held on February 12th and 13th; I will talk to all Croatian officials," Vucic said.

Ahead of an announced decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on Thursday on the dispute over territorial waters between Croatia and Slovenia, Croatia has made it clear it will not accept the ruling.