October 9, 2021 - The Zagreb cat shelter project is among the necessary strategic documents of the City and is included in the list of initial projects from 2021 - 2027.

The Mayor of Zagreb, Tomislav Tomašević, announced the construction of a shelter for cats during a tour of the Zagreb Shelter for neglected animals. There, the City of Zagreb, in cooperation with the Zagreb Zoo and the Animal Friends Association, organized the 19th International Animal Protection Day celebration,  reports Jutarnji List.

"We plan to increase the capacity for accommodating cats in Dumovec. In order to prevent dogs from leaving, we continue to control microchipping, "said Tomasevic.

The cat shelter project is among the necessary strategic documents of the City of Zagreb and is included in the list of initial projects for the financial perspective from 2021 - 2027.

With this project, the City of Zagreb would get an appropriate shelter for the accommodation of injured and sick and other neglected cats.

"At the Zagreb Shelter for neglected animals, we currently have a hundred animals - 70 dogs and 30 cats. Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, we have received a smaller number of dogs in the Shelter, but we still find abandoned pets on the streets of Zagreb. Most of them do not have a microchip," said Damir Skok, director of the Zagreb Zoo, which includes the Shelter in Dumovec.

The employees of the Shelter are happy that some participants left with a new pet during the International Animal Protection Day celebration. The mayor also invited the people of Zagreb to adopt dogs and cats.

"Buying dogs is not necessary. There are many dogs that need to be adopted. Trust me, every dog you adopt will be loyal to you for the rest of your life. That dog becomes a member of the family," said Tomasevic.

During the International Animal Protection Day celebration, citizens were able to visit the Shelter, see how work is done on the education and socialization of dogs, and meet associations that work with animal protection. An educational and entertaining program was also prepared for children. Animal Friends organized a Vega picnic. Citizens were also encouraged to adopt by dm, who gives a gift voucher worth 50 kuna to anyone who adopts a dog or cat by the end of the year to buy food and other products from the pet range.

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October 9, 2021 - Jadran Split is one step closer to the LEN Champions League group stage! The Split water polo club defeated Barcelona at home in the 2nd qualification round for the competition. Jadran plays against Oradea on Sunday at noon in the 3rd round!

Jadran Split defeated Barcelona 8:4 in a world-class match and is one step closer to the Champions League group stage. With this victory, Jadran secured a place in the play-off round in which they will play at home and away. It will not be an easy task, but Jadran has the strength.

There were no goals until 33 seconds before the end of the first quarter when Antonio Dužević took advantage of the extra man play. Jadran goalkeeper Mate Anić had a particularly great quarter, saving five or six incredible shots from Barcelona.

The same pace continued in the second quarter, and in the second minute of the third quarter, captain Anđelo Šetka also scored. Luka Bukić scored for 4:1 before Barcelona found their way to the net and quickly took the ball in extra-man situations. Barcelona reduced the score to -1, then Jadran led by 5:3 and 5:4. 

In the last eight minutes, it was 7:4 for Jadran. Marin Delic confirmed the victory with a goal for the final 8:4.

"I am very pleased first that we won 8:4, that it is not 16:12, with a lot of goals conceded. We had problems in the attack, we missed goals, but when you play defense as we do now, you win games like this. Mate Anić defended excellently, but when the defense is engaged, when we know where the danger is coming from, it is easier for him to defend as well, and when threatened from all sides, it is not easy. He defended a great few shots, kept us level until the attack worked. As for the attack, this will happen once in 10-15 times. We will always score a couple of goals, but we are in trouble if we receive a lot of them. Now Oradea is waiting for us, I will use it to give a chance to young players, we will not be embarrassed, we are going to win, but young players will have more opportunities," said Jadran coach Mile Smodlaka.

"In Podgorica, we did not arrange properly in the defense. In this tournament, the emphasis was on defense; we justified the coach’s words to emphasize defense and goals will come. Good defenses were played on both sides; we missed in the beginning. When we stepped on the ball and improved our defense, the product was a victory," said Mate Anić.

Jadran will play its third game in the qualifications group against Oradea tomorrow, Sunday, at noon. 

In today's second match, Primorac Kotor beat Oradea 8:6.

Jadran: Podrug, Buric (1), Marinic-Kragic (1), Cagalj, Z. Butic, Pejkovic, Bukic (1), Kharkov (1), Delic (1), Dobud, Setka (1), Duzevic (2) , Anic.

Barcelona: Schneider, Duart, Van den Burg, Ferrer, Urzainqui, Duric (1), Baches (1), Goma Esforzado, Compte, Estrany Esforzado (1), Guell (1), Sesen, Vicente.

Source: Dalmatinski Portal

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October 9, 2021 - To promote Split and Dalmatia as a leading Mediterranean food, wine, and travel destination, the Taste the Mediterranean Festival headed over to Radmanove Mlinice, Arsana Tasting House, and Cetina river canyon for an authentic experience of Croatian Mediterranean identity and traditional Dalmatian gastronomy.

The TTM Festival is finishing strong. For the last day of the 4-day festival, the participants departed from Briig Boutique Hotel in Split at 9:30 am and arrived safely in Omiš and were received by Arsana Tasting House. There, they were greeted with traditional food and wine including soparnik, prosciutto, and Dalmatian wines Pribidrag from Vinarija Mimica and Debit from Vinarija Ante Sladić. 

Naturally, visiting Omiš would not be complete without exploring the Cetina river. The gloomy weather did not stop the guests from having a wonderful time in one of the most beautiful attractions in Dalmatia - the beautiful canyon of the Cetina river. "Even the rain couldn't spoil the spirit of our chefs", said one of the event coordinators.

To fully experience the rich history of Dalmatian cuisine, TTM headed over to the famous restaurant Radmanove Mlinice where they were treated with traditional Croatian food from appetizer to dessert. The menu consisted of fritule (Dalmatian fritters), fried frog legs with tartar sauce, salted and marinated anchovies, olives, and white-wine braised octopus with olive oil, garlic, and parsley. Since a traditional Dalmatian meal would not be complete without serving peka, the restaurant served veal "peka" (under the lid) with potatoes and salad as this afternoon's special main course. Radmanove Mlinice also showed the invited guests and chefs how traditional homemade bread is prepared using peka. 

Since two of the main goals of the TTM festival are the exchange of experiences with other Mediterranean countries and education for students and professionals in the hospitality and restaurant industry, chef Ippei Uemura of Tabi Restaurant, Marseille, who won the Young Talent of the Year Gault & Millau France also conducted a masterclass for the students of Jure Kaštelan High School in Omiš.

After a fun day outside of Split, the TTM Festival team returned back to Split to prepare for the last part of the programme which includes exclusive dinners in restaurants Zrno Soli which will be hosted by chef Stjepan Vukadin and Zora Bila which will be hosted by Chefs Sandra and Dane Tahirović. The exclusive dinner specials of TTM Festival were proven to be a hit and were enjoyed by all attendees. 

Also as part of the Taste the Mediterranean festival, the Split Restaurant Nights runs until tonight. This event offers tourists and locals special 3-course Mediterranean-Dalmatian menus including wine which is offered at promotional prices in 15 participating restaurants. The restaurants include Restaurants Atlantida, Bajamonti, Brasserie on 7, Bokeria, Corto Maltese, Dujkin dvor, Fantažija, Konoba Fetivi, Konoba Marul, Laganini, Mazzgoon, Pandora Greenbox, Portofino, Sidi bar and Šug.

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ZAGREB, 9 Oct, 2021 - The Api Green company opened a honey bottling plant in the eastern town of Vukovar on Saturday, the first such plant to be operating according to the HACCP standard in Vukovar-Srijem County.

The plant was opened in the Vukovar Business Incubator as part of Honey Days.

"Beekeepers will now be able to increase the number of beehives and sign a contract with Api Green on honey delivery. The honey delivered to the bottling plant will be analysed and labelled as honey from Croatian apiaries," the head of the Vukovar 91 beekeepers' association, Ivan Dumenčić, said.

HACCP is a system that helps identify and control food safety risks in the food processing industry.

The plant has a maximum bottling capacity of one tonne per day, and Api Green invested nearly €25,000 in it.

"In order to improve the quality of honey, Api Green will purchase honey from registered beekeepers, check it and put it on the market," the company's CEO Božena Miličević said.

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October 9, 2021 - Assistant coach Ivica Olić addressed the press on Saturday after Croatia's victory against Cyprus on Friday. The big news is that coach Zlatko Dalić called up the young Red Bull Salzburg star Luka Sučić to replace Mateo Kovačić in the 2022 World Cup qualifier against Slovakia on Monday. 

After a great 3:0 victory in Cyprus, the Croatia national football team will face Slovakia to continue the 2022 World Cup qualifiers on Monday.

Croatia will play against Slovakia at home, at City Garden Stadium in Osijek. Today, the national team assistant coach, Ivica Olić, addressed journalists.

The former Croatia national team player initially spoke about the game against Cyprus.

"These are the games in which you can lose a lot and gain very little. We knew that Cyprus would hold a positive result, and until there was a two-goal difference for us, they held on. They relied mainly on defense and tried to shake us with counterattacks, but after the game, when we looked at everything again, Cyprus must be happy that it ended only 3:0."

Josip Stanišić, a member of Bayern Munich, made his national team debut.

"We have to be grateful to both Bayern and coach Nagelsmann for trusting him. Until this season, Stanišić spent practically all his time in the second team of Bayern, and with the injury of Pavard, he came to the fore and imposed himself. The reviews for such a young and ‘inexperienced’ player were great. When he decided to play for the Croatia national team, it was a matter of time before getting a chance. Juranović's injury dropped him out of the first 11, and in addition to a couple of initial mistakes, he played an excellent game against Cyprus."

Coach Zlatko Dalić invited RB Salzburg's Luka Sučić to join the national team. 

The RB Salzburg footballer is a standard first-team player of the best Austrian team and he regularly plays in the Champions League. He showed magnificent talent in only a few appearances for the young Croatian national team. On Friday in Varaždin, the Croatia U21s defeated Norway 3:2, and Sučić participated in all three goals, either as a scorer or as an assistant. 

"Luka had several great performances in the Champions League, he starts in the Austrian championship, he has been under our radar for a long time, and we thought about him at the last gathering. In that position, the competition is the biggest in Croatia, and it is not easy to be inside. However, he played great yesterday, he was one of the best, and I think he is a quality and potent player who has a great future ahead of him if injuries bypass him."

Ivica Olić hopes for great support from the fans and a good result in Osijek.

"We hear that ticket sales are going great, the stadium is always well filled here, and I do not doubt that it will be the same on Monday. Slovakia is a well-known opponent, which lost its ambition for first or second place after losing in Russia. They may not be motivated; I believe the coach will give a chance to other players. Sometimes they can be dangerous, but we have to concentrate on the last four games and take three points. We see that Russia is also taking points, and the last game may decide who directly qualifies for Qatar. There is no relaxation, we are going for three points, and I am sure that the audience will carry us to victory with a full stadium."

Mateo Kovačić will miss the match against Slovakia due to yellow cards.

"Kova is in great shape and is an integral part of this team. Every team lacks when there is no such player. But we have a wide choice here, and whoever comes in instead will be sure to do well.

Croatia and Russia are in a dead-even race, leading the table with 16 points each, six more than Slovenia, which also can qualify. Russia has two challenging away games in the remaining three games. The first is on Monday in Maribor, and the last round of qualifications is on November 14 at Poljud.

Russia celebrated minimally yesterday against Slovakia with an own goal by Skriniara, while Slovenia outclassed Malta away 4:0.

"I was surprised by Slovenia's big result, but I am glad that it ended that way, mathematically they are also candidates for second place. I hope that in the match against Russia, they can take at least one point, and I would like three. But we should not burden ourselves with that; the most important thing is that we continue to play like this. Of course, I want Slovenia to help, but we have a match point in the last game."

Ivica Olić commented on Andrej Kramarić's goal-scoring crisis in the national team.

"I was sorry that VAR annulled his goal. Every striker will undoubtedly be in a goal-scoring crisis for a while, and that happens to the best. Andrej played a good game against Cyprus and won a penalty kick. It is the team that won the game and the team that will get the attackers out of the mini-crisis. I do not doubt Andrej's quality, and I know that he will score again soon. Crises happen to everyone, but then a series of goals can follow."

Source: HRT

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October the 9th, 2021 - Croatia's largest medical facility, Zagreb's Rebro hospital, is preparing sanctions for eleven employees over issues regarding the recently introduced mandatory covid certificate system.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Rebro hospital (KBC Zagreb) is preparing eleven official warnings before dismissal for non-compliance with the introduction of digital covid certificates in the health and social care system, Jutarnji list has unofficially found out.

The largest Croatian hospital seems to be the first to have decided to more severely sanction its employees. Namely, yesterday was the third day since the introduction of the obligation to present covid certificates, and in the first two days of the system's application, according to the Ministry of Health, out of a total of 52,561 employees in healthcare, 31 of them refused to be tested for the novel coronavirus.

Refusal to show a Croatian covid certificate and the refusal to be tested is treated by the hospital as non-attendance and people who fall into this category will not receive compensation for that day. Three consecutive days of what is considered absence (as it is in this case) is considered a serious violation of the terms of employment and the employer may issue a formal warning before dismissal.

At KBC Sestre Milosrdnice, another large Zagreb hospital and the one with the highest number of people who didn't want to be tested in the first two days of this new system being in place for all hospital staff, there are no formal warnings given before dismissing an employee.

As Jutarnji list has since learned, the reason is solely because no one has been absent from work for three days in a row - yet. Namely, three employees were tested, one presented a covid certificate, four decided to go on sick leave, one employee went on holiday, and one person had a day off due to being on call.

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October the 9th, 2021 - A new Croatian crypto startup called Blockademia aims to solve the problem of fake certificates and diplomas, which is both morbidly ironic and innovative given that there are so many circulating in this country.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes, one of the 46 cities around the world where the global Cardano summit was recently held was Zagreb, where the new Croatian crypto startup Blockademia was presented.

Blockademia's eponymous application (app) uses Cardano technology and provides a decentralised system for document authentication. As they explained, Blockademia ensures permanent, unchangeable and secure storage of proof of authenticity of any issued document and enables the simple and fast verification of the authenticity of all kinds of documents, diplomas, certificates and others.

They have been preparing their project for the last year, and now, according to director Marin Kramaric, the time has come to involve the public.

"Over more recent years, we've witnessed the growing abuse of fake diplomas at various levels in society, in our country and in the rest of the world. So, I think Blockademia is coming out at the perfect time and the interest will be great. We already have excellent feedback and interest exists, as this Blockchain component guarantees complete transparency and security where it's impossible to make a change once the data is entered. Blockademia's system solves the challenge of transparency and authenticity at all levels, and is applied not only for the authenticity of diplomas and certificates, but also for other documents such as contracts, video and audio recordings, source codes...

Everything we get in binary form can be recorded and written down in a blockchain, and later provide users with quick and easy access from anywhere in the world at any time. We chose Cardano as the first blockchain developed with an academic approach, and today it's positioned as one of the top three blockchains offering the highest level of decentralisation, security, sufficient speed and relatively low transaction costs,'' explained Kramaric.

After Revut, Blockademia is the second Croatian startup to sell tokens using Cardano blockchain technology. Their clients consist of institutions, laboratories, various companies and state and city administration bodies which issue documents that need to be protected from forgery.

"We're starting, of course, first locally, but we're soon planning for global expansion through a network of franchises. Our plans by the end of this year are to successfully complete the Private & Community Sale, and further hire and strengthen the team that will complete the project next year, and further contract the franchise model to have a franchise network in the world and customers from all areas over the next eighteen months. We have four models of the Blockademia system, which means everyone can find themselves in it. In the first two quarters of next year, we plan to complete the Blockademia application and test it with the first users. In the third quarter, we plan to complete the web and mobile application for verification and, we'd say in the last quarter of next year, we plan to be in full production of the system,'' said Kramaric.

The ACI token is a native token on the Cardano blockchain and will be used as a utility token by which all actions within the Blockademia application will take place. At the beginning of October, the first round of private sales of ACI tokens began, which will be followed by the first round of public sales on November the 15th, the second round on November the 22nd and the last round of community sales on November the 29th, which will then last until December the 6th this year.

''I must mention that this is primarily a community offer, and ACI tokens can only be obtained by replacing the ADA (native Cardano currency) with ACI. After completing all rounds of the token sale, we'll start with the development and integration of the platform itself. Big plans also require big investments. We're raising the funds so that we can realise all this in a year, the majority of which goes to franchise development around the world, as well as support and marketing. We have very good interest as well as the first potential users to test the system, and franchisors. There are always investors for good projects,'' noted Kramaric, whose team consists of 18 employees of various profiles; the base consists of IT and blockchain experts, in addition to marketing, finance, legal department, human resources and other departments.

After the token sale, when more intensive development and global implementation of the system start, further employment is expected, and Kramaric believes that blockchain technology is well accepted here in Croatia, who says that Blockademia's overall goal is to shape the world with truth

“Blockchain is actually an IT network, spread over thousands of mutually independent computers around the world, that is protected by strong encryption and other technologies. Once recorded, the data on the blockchain is permanent, publicly available and unchangeable, because no person or organisation has the ability to delete/change this data,'' he stated.

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ZAGREB, 9 Oct, 2021 - Eight Croatian companies are showcasing their products at the Anuga food fair which is taking place in the German city of Cologne from 9 to 13 October, the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) announced on Saturday, describing the fair as the central gathering point for food companies from throughout the world.

Croatia is represented by food and drink producers Kraš, Dupin, Pekar, Hermes International, Uje, Arabesca, Varžak Med and Prodan Tartufi.

Dragan Kovačević, the HGK vice-president for agriculture and tourism, said that this was the first fair of global significance to be taking place in person since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

"We are glad about our members' interest in fairs despite the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, as well as the fact that the exhibition space is sold out. The HGK covers half of the costs for its members and we believe that our help will make it easier for them to find opportunities to enter new export markets," Kovačević said.

This year's show has attracted nearly 5,000 exhibitors from more than 100 countries. The previous fair, held in 2019, drew 165,000 professional visitors from 200 countries, which confirms its leading position in Europe, the HGK said.

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