Božidar Kalmeta

Denis Romac, vice-president of the Croatian Journalists' Association, told BIRN that the attack on journalist Hrvoje Bajlo on Sunday evening in Zadar was a consequence of state institutions not reacting properly to a recent alleged threat to another reporter by a government minister.

The Bureau for Combating Corruption and Organised Crime, USKOK, filed its latest indictment against Bozidar Kalmeta, the mayor of the Croatian coastal town of Zadar, on Friday.

This follows the anti-fraud body's indictments of Zagreb mayor Milan Bandic and former Sisak-Moslavina county prefect Marina Lovric Merzel on Wednesday.

Sinovcic, who is also president of local football club NK Zadar, was detained on Tuesday morning at his home in the town on Croatia's Adriatic coast.

Six others were also arrested in the same operation, five of them employees of the local tax administration office.

Croatian media have speculated that they are accused of embezzling some 1.3 million euro.

BELGRADE - Head of the Coalition of Refugee Associations Miodrag Linta sent an open letter to Croatia's Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic on friday asking that the government ban the clearance of the ruins of Serb-owned buildings without consent from their owners.

BELGRADE - The Coalition of Refugee Associations on Serbia sent an open letter to Croatian President Zoran Milanovic in response to the recent decision of Zadar Mayor Bozidar Kalmeta who issued instructions for the remains of some 80 mined Serb houses and business facilities to be removed without the owners' consent.