Zagreb - Excitement reached fever-pitch levels in Croatia as the small nation counted down to its first-ever World Cup final against France on Sunday.

Zagreb - Despite the prodigious talent of Croatia's players, few expected The Fiery Ones to reach the World Cup final -- a feat not seen for such a small nation since Uruguay reached football's pinnacle in 1950.

Zagreb - "Mum, am I a Srbenka?" Nina Batinic recalls asking as a seven-year-old in a new film that highlights Croatia's still fragile inter-ethnic relations more than two decades on from the country's bloody war.

Zagreb - Croatia's top court on Monday blocked the extradition of a Bosnian man to Tunisia over the alleged murder of an aerospace engineer, described by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas as one of its members.

Zagreb - Thousands of anti-abortion demonstrators took to the streets in Croatia's three biggest cities on Saturday in rallies that largely passed without incident, even as the issue continues to divide the staunchly Catholic EU member state.

Zagreb - A Croatian parliamentary delegation on Wednesday aborted a visit to Serbia after Serb ultranationalist leader Vojislav Seselj, recently convicted of war crimes by a UN court, trod on a Croatian flag..

Zagreb - Croatia's parliament ratified a treaty safeguarding women on Friday, despite opposition from conservatives and the powerful Catholic Church.

- A faithful male flying thousands of miles each year to join his handicapped female who cannot fly -- the story of two storks in Croatia, Klepetan and Malena, is one of love and devotion beating the odds.

Zagreb - A Croatian man walked 200 kilometres (130 miles) carrying a heavy wooden cross on his back to protest the country purchasing military jets when, he claimed, it did not have enough money for seriously ill children's medication.

Zagreb - Several thousand people marched through the Croatian capital on Saturday in protest against a European treaty designed to protect women.

Zagreb - Croatia's former prime minister Ivo Sanader pleaded not guilty Friday to accepting a bribe from an Austrian bank during the country's 1990s conflict, at the start of his war profiteering retrial.

Zagreb - The Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center on Wednesday condemned the Croatian president for praising the country's immigrants to Argentina and warned they included many officials of its World War II pro-Nazi regime.

Zagreb - Croatia's ultra-conservative party on Monday opposed ratification of a treaty safeguarding women that has divided the country, saying it was against Christian values.

Zagreb - Real Madrid's Luka Modric was charged Friday with giving false testimony at the corruption trial of Dinamo Zagreb's powerful former chief Zdravko Mamic, prosecutors said.

Zagreb - The presidents of Croatia and Serbia on Monday admitted that ties between the former foes were still frosty due to past events and pledged to improve them."Unfortunately, relations between Serbia and Croatia are still burdened with history ...

Zagreb - Croatian gay and parents' rights groups filed a complaint Tuesday against the organisers of a children's carnival where the country's first children's book about "rainbow families" was symbolically burnt.

Savudrija - For two decades Diego Makovac has made a trouble-free living fishing for sole in Piran Bay. But he now faces a flurry of Croatian and Slovenian patrol boats as the two countries fight over the water.

Zagreb - In Croatia's first children's book about "rainbow families", two mothers help their son Roko to put on his skis. It's part of a simple story aimed at changing attitudes in the staunchly Catholic country.

Zagreb - A Chinese consortium was chosen to build a controversial bridge deemed vital for Croatia's tourism industry, officials said Friday, announcing the first significant Chinese investment in the European Union member.The 2.

Zagreb - When tourists fly into Croatia's capital, they land at the gleaming new Franjo Tudjman airport, named after the "father of the nation" -- a figure now implicated by a damning UN war crimes verdict.