Croatia

Operation Mistral were two linked military offensives of the Croatian Army, Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Croatian Defence... Council launched in Western Bosnia and Herzegovina during September 1995 as part of the Croatian War of Independence and the Bosnian War. It ended with a decisive victory for the Croatian and Bosnian forces. At the same time, NATO began its bombings against Bosnian Serbs as punishment for the second of the two Markale Massacres, which further demoralized and weakened the Bosnian Serb position. Following successful operations during the Summer of 1995 and the August overtaking of Krajina during Operation Storm, Croatian forces switched to Bosnian territory to continue the pursuit of Serb forces which were routed after Storm. Two elite Croatian brigades, which captured Knin during Storm, the 4th Guards Brigade and the 7th Guards Brigade, returned to Bosnian territory and attacked north from the area around Bosansko Grahovo, captured during the summer.
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Operation Summer '95 was a joint military offensive of the Croatian Army and Croatian Defence Council forces launched in Western Bosnia and... Herzegovina in July 1995 during the Croatian War of Independence and the Bosnian War. It ended with a decisive victory for the Croatian forces and paved the way for Operation Storm which was to follow in August. Most areas of western Bosnia and Herzegovina were controlled by Bosnian Serb forces since the start of the war in 1992. Bihać was the only area of Western Bosnia not to be under Serb control, as well as Croat-held Herzegovina in the southwest. In 1994, Croatia and Bosnia signed the Washington Agreement and later the Split Agreement which enabled Croat and Bosnian units to cross the border in support of each other. By mid-1995, the Croatian Army was in the process of establishing authority among the Serb-held territories in Croatia. After Operation Flash in May, Croat forces started to plan an offensive to capture the entire Krajina region.
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The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between forces loyal to the government of Croatia—which had declared independence... from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia —and the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People's Army and local Serb forces, with the JNA ending its combat operations in Croatia by 1992. In Croatia, the war is primarily referred to as the Homeland War and also as the Greater-Serbian aggression . In Serbian sources, War in Croatia is the most commonly used term. Initially, the war was waged between Croatian police forces and Serbs living in the Republic of Croatia. As the JNA came under increasing Serbian influence in Belgrade, many of its units began assisting the Serbs fighting in Croatia. The Croatian side aimed to establish a sovereign country independent of Yugoslavia, and the Serbs, supported by Serbia, opposed the secession and wanted Croatia to remain a part of Yugoslavia. The Serbs effectively sought new boundaries in areas of Croatia with a Serb majority or significant minority, and attempted to conquer as much of Croatia as possible.
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Operation Winter '94 was a joint military offensive of Croatian Army and Croatian Defense Council launched in Western Bosnia and Herzegovina on... November 29 and continuing up until December 24 of 1994 during the Croatian War of Independence and the Bosnian War. It ended with a decisive victory for Croatian forces, simultaneously freeing Bihać enclave and gaining of approximately 200 km² of territory previously held by Serb forces. Together with Operation Flash, Operation Jump 1, Operation Jump 2 and especially Operation Summer '95, it paved the way for Operation Storm, which ended Croatian War of Independence, and political entities known as Republic of Western Bosnia and Serb Republic of Krajina.
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The Zangger Committee, also known as the Nuclear Exporters Committee, sprang from Article III.2 of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear... Weapons which entered into force on March 5, 1970. Under the terms of Article III.2 International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards must be applied to nuclear exports. Between 1971 and 1974, a group of 15 nuclear supplier states held a series of informal meetings in Vienna chaired by Professor Claude Zangger of Switzerland. The group's objective was to reach a common understanding on: the definition of "equipment or material especially designed or prepared for the processing, use or production of special fissionable material;" and the conditions and procedures that would govern exports of such equipment or material in order to meet the obligations of Article III.2 on the basis of fair commercial competition. The group, which became known as the Zangger Committee, decided that it would be informal and that its decisions would not be legally binding upon its members.
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The Southeast European Cooperative Initiative, or the SECI, has been an initiative that, under the auspices of men like Erhard Busek and Richard... Schifter, has been successful in providing stability in an unstable region and has found support in international organizations and countries. As of 2009, the region has found confidence in its new stability and along with the help of the SECI, has created a Regional Co-operation Council , owned and run by the countries in Southeast Europe aimed at strengthening peace, democracy and the economy in the hopes that the newfound stability can be supported by those countries who not so long ago were the perpetuators of volatility. The SECI Regional Center Headquarters is located in Bucharest Romania. The Southeast European Cooperative Initiative was formed in 1996 under the guidance of then, Senior Director for Eastern Europe in the United States National Security Council, Richard Schifter.
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The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programs. The World Bank's official... goal is the reduction of poverty. According to the World Bank's Articles of Agreement all of its decisions must be guided by a commitment to promote foreign investment, international trade and facilitate capital investment. The World Bank differs from the World Bank Group, in that the World Bank comprises only two institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association , whereas the former incorporates these two in addition to three more: International Finance Corporation , Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency , and International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes . The World Bank is one of five institutions created at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944. The International Monetary Fund, a related institution, is the second. Delegates from many countries attended the Bretton Woods Conference.
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The Council of Europe is an international organization promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human... rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation. It was founded in 1949, has 47 member states with some 800 million citizens, and is an entirely separate body from the European Union , which has only 27 member states. Unlike the EU, the Council of Europe cannot make binding laws. The two do however share certain symbols such as the flag of Europe. The Council of Europe has nothing to do with either the Council of the European Union or the European Council, which are both EU bodies. The best known bodies of the Council of Europe are the European Court of Human Rights, which enforces the European Convention on Human Rights, and the European Pharmacopoeia Commission, which sets the quality standards for pharmaceutical products in Europe. The Council of Europe's work has resulted in standards, charters and conventions to facilitate cooperation between European countries.
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The University of Dubrovnik is a university located in Dubrovnik, Croatia. It was founded in 2003 and is organized in 7 Departments. High education... and scientific work have their roots in the distant past. This is particularly true of the maritime, the social and the natural sciences. For example, Beno Kotruljević, of Dubrovnik, wrote four books in 1458 About Commerce and a Perfect merchant, published in Venice in 1573, which was the first work of its kind. There is also Nikola Sorgojević, a citizen of the Dubrovnik Republic , the first Croat who wrote a book about navigation . Jesuits founded the Collegium Ragusinum in 1624, which was promulgated into a public institution of high learning where art and natural sciences were studied. That institution provided education for Ruđer Bošković, the most eminent Croatian scientist and the founder of the dynamic theory of atoms, who continued his doctorate studies in Rome.
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Danijela Martinović, known artistically as Danijela is a popular Croatian singer with success across all of the Balkans. Born to a middle-class... family, Danijela began to sing from an early age. Her big break came in 1991 when she joined the pop band Magazin. Magazin had long been a big name on the Croatian music scene ; as such, Danijela became one of the biggest national icons. In the late 1990s she left Magazin to pursue a solo career, but she continued to work with the band's leader and prolific songwriter Tonči Huljić. That partnership resulted in Danijela winning the 1998 Dora contest with the popular ballad "Neka mi ne svane" and becoming the Croatian representative at the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest, where she came in 5th with 131 pts. Danijela has a sister, Izabela, who also pursued a music career through Split-based pop act Stijene. In 2007 she participated in the Croatian version of the television show Dancing with the Stars", in which she danced with Nicolas Quesnoit .
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Dorotea "Doris" Dragović is a Croatian singer-songwriter. She represented Yugoslavia in the Eurovision Song Contest 1986 with the song... "Željo moja", finishing the 11th with 49 points, and Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest 1999 with the song "Marija Magdalena", finishing fourth with 118 points. Dragović was born in Split, Yugoslavia, today Croatia, and had been dreaming of being a singer since her childhood. She cites Arsen Dedić, Gabi Novak and Tereza Kesovija as her biggest influences and childhood idols. She came to regional prominence in early 1980s as a member of musical group More. Dragović began her solo career in 1986, when she released her début album Tigrica. The same year, she represented Yugoslavia in the Eurovision Song Contest 1986 in Bergen with the song "Željo moja", and finished the 11th with 49 points. Dragović has since been one of the most famous pop singers in Yugoslavia, later Croatia and its region.
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Ivan Šola is a Croatian bobsledder who has competed since 1999. Competing in three Winter Olympics, he earned his best finish of 20th in the... four-man event at Vancouver in 2010. Šola also competed in the FIBT World Championships, earning his best finish of 24th in the four-man event at Calgary in 2005. Prior to his bobsleigh career, Šola was a multiple Croatian champion in motorcycle racing. In 2003 Šola also competed in Formula 2000 speedboat races. As of 2002, he was an owner of a motorcycle shop and a driving school. In 2007 we was elected member of the board of the Croatian Motorcycling Federation. As of 2008, Šola is the president of the Croatian Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation.
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Raimondo Vianello was an Italian film actor, comedian, and television host. He was a well-known Italian television personality. He was born in Rome,... but spent his youth in Pula, where his father, Admiral of the Regia Marina directed the local naval academy. During World War II, he joined the Italian Social Republic, the fascist puppet state established in northern Italy after the Allied invasion of Italy. He was captured by American troops. In 1958 he met actress Sandra Mondaini, whom he would marry four years later, and with whom he frequently appeared in TV shows during his whole career. His first famous partner on the small screen was Ugo Tognazzi with whom, starting from 1954, he hosted the satyrical show Un due tre; the show was halted in 1959 after the duo performed an ironical sketch about the then-president of the Republic, Giovanni Gronchi. Vianello then moved full-time to cinema, appearing in a total of 79 films between 1947 and 1968. In the 1970s he returned to RAI with a series of Saturday shows which made him and Mondaini extremely popular as hosts and authors of sketches.
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Montenegro , meaning "Black Mountain" is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is... bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast, Albania to the southeast, and Kosovo to the east. Its capital and largest city is Podgorica, while Cetinje is designated as the Prijestonica , meaning the former Royal Capital City. In the 10th century, there existed three Slavic principalities on the territory of Montenegro: Duklja, roughly corresponding to the southern half, Travunia, the west, and Rascia, the north. In 1042, archon Stefan Vojislav led a revolt that resulted in independence of Duklja and the establishment of the Vojislavljević dynasty. Duklja reached its zenith under Vojislav's son, Mihailo , and his son Bodin . By the 13th century, Zeta had replaced Duklja when referring to the realm, which at the time was part of the Serbian Grand Principality of the Nemanjić dynasty.
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Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia is a Slavic nation state, situated in South-Central Europe, at the crossroad of main European... cultural and trade routes. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Croatia to the south and southeast, and Hungary to the northeast. It covers 20,273 square kilometres and has a population of 2.05 million. It is a parliamentary republic, member of the European Union and NATO. Relative to its geography, history, economy, culture, and language, it is a very diverse country distinguished by a transitional character. It is characterised by a high economic and social level. Its capital and largest city is Ljubljana. The territory of Slovenia is mainly hilly or mountainous and has an exceptionally high landscape and biological diversity and a mosaic structure, which are a result of natural attributes and the long-lasting presence of humans. Four major European geographic units interweave here: the Alps, the Dinaric Alps, the Mediterranean, with a small portion of coastline along the Adriatic Sea, and the Pannonian Plain.
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Serbia /ˈsɜrbiə/, officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast... Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans. Serbia borders Hungary to the north; Romania and Bulgaria to the east; the Republic of Macedonia to the south; and Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro to the west; additionally, it borders Albania through Kosovo, whose status as part of Serbia is disputed. Serbia covers an area of 88,361 km and has a population of just over 7.1 million, while the capital and largest city is Belgrade. The arrival of the Serbs to the Balkans in the 7th century, established several states, eventually forming the Serbian Empire in the 14th century. By the 16th century, Serbia was conquered and occupied by the Ottoman Empire, at times interrupted by the Habsburgs. In the early 19th century the Serbian revolution re-established the country as the region's first constitutional monarchy, which subsequently expanded its territory and pioneered the abolition of feudalism in the Balkans.
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Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina, or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southeastern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Its... capital and largest city is Sarajevo. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the 20 kilometres of coastline on the Adriatic Sea surrounding the town of Neum. In the central and southern interior of the country the geography is mountainous, in the northwest it is moderately hilly, and the northeast is predominantly flatland. The inland is a geographically larger region and has a moderate continental climate, bookended by hot summers and cold and snowy winters. The southern tip of the country has a Mediterranean climate and plain topography. Bosnia and Herzegovina is a region that traces permanent human settlement back to the Neolithic age.
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