Croatian government

Croatian police said on Wednesday that migrants have continued arriving from Serbia into the eastern border town of Tovarnik after Hungary closed its border with Serbia to halt a rising tide of migrants.

The move by the Hungarian government prompted non-EU Serbia to redirect buses carrying hundreds of migrants and refugees to the border with another EU member state - Croatia.

After the Croatian government on Thursday presented the final draft of the law resolving the issue of Swiss franc loans, the NGO Association Franc welcomed the move.

The draft provisions that all franc loans will be converted into less expensive euro loans, using the exchange rate on the date the loan was taken out.

A consortium of international banks, involving the major part of Croatia's banking system, on Thursday announced a lawsuit against the Croatian government's over its decision to solve the problem of loans in Swiss francs by converting them into euro.

Zagreb County Court on Wednesday indefinitely extended custody of former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader.

His lawyers had filed a plea for him to be released from custody lasting almost four years.

Sanader has received a nine-year jail sentence in a first instance ruling for using private marketing companies to siphon off public funds from state institutions and bodies.

Whether the EU will react - and in what manner - to the ban on Cyrillic in Vukovar, Croatia, "is more important than the Croatian government's reaction."

Serbian Labor Minister Aleksandar Vulin made this statement on Tuesday, and added:

Croatia's tourism ministry says tourists from former Yugoslavia are coming to Croatia for their summer holidays in ever greater numbers, despite the recent political spats between politicians and states.

Egypt's affiliate of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) threatened on August 5 to execute a Croatian kidnapped in Cairo last month within 48 hours if Muslim women jailed in Egypt are not freed.

Zagreb county court has scheduled the start of Sanader's retrial for September 7 on charges of abuse of office, war profiteering and bribery.

Sanader's eight-and-a-half-year sentence was revoked by the constitutional court on Monday due to procedural errors.

The Croatian Hydrocarbon Agency announced on Wednesday that a second licensing round will begin in September for exploration areas in both the Adriatic Sea and Slavonia.

The tender will be opened for seven months, during which time interested companies will receive documentation showing the potential for hydrocarbon exploitation and be asked to make a binding offer.

With all 141 MPs present, the Croatian parliament voted against the arbitration agreement with Slovenia at a special session on Wednesday, unanimously backing the stance of the country's government.