The Republic of Croatia is a European country situated along the Adriatic Sea and its hinterland. It stretches from the slopes of the Alps and deep into the Pannonian Valley to the banks of the Danube and Drava rivers.

Thus according to its natural characteristics, as well as its cultural and historical development, Croatia can be divided into three geographically distinct zones.

Like many countries in Western Europe, Croatia was founded on the ruins of the Roman Empire. When they arrived in the territory of present-day Croatia, the Croats were politicaly organized in principalities. In 925, Croatian King Tomislav united the principalities, establishing the first Croatian state. Later, Croatia retained its legal status and autonomy within the framework of the Hungarian empire, and the Habsburg Monarchy.

In Croatia, where the Mediterranean, the mountains and the Pannonian plains come together in a unique harmony of natural beauty, within just a little more than a hundred kilometres, you can come across excitingly different landscapes.

The Adriatic, with one of the most indented coastlines in Europe with its 1,185 islands and islets, of which only 66 are inhabited, is undoubtedly the most popular tourist destination. Continental Croatia, however, also abounds in beauty: it is a land of forests, rivers rich in fish, swift mountain streams and deep gorges of Gorski Kotar, and the magnificent Plitvice Lakes in Lika. It is a land of golden wheat fields, oak woods and wide rivers of Slavonia and Baranja, a land of quaint little villages, romantic castles and manors, and picturesque rolling hills and vineyards of the Croatian Zagorje.

NEWS: 10 June 2008 13:08 GMT by Amy-Mae Elliott
While O2 has now confirmed dates and pricing into for the iPhone 3G in the UK, Vodafone and T-Mobile has provided more general information about availability in their respective iPhone territories.

T-Mobile has said the iPhone 3G will be available in Austria, Germany and the Netherlands on 11 July and in Croatia, Czech

Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia “later this year”.

Vodafone has revealed the iPhone 3G will be available in Australia, Italy, New Zealand and Portugal on 11 July, and in the Czech

Republic, Egypt, Greece, India, South Africa and Turkey again “later this year”.

Vodafone did also state the the iPhone 3G will be available via Vodafone on both prepay and contract price plans.

Other European countries to get the device on the 11 July include Switzerland with Swisscom, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden via TeliaSonera, Spain thanks to Telefonica, Italy through Telecom Italia Mobile and Austria, France Portugal and Switzerland with Orange.

Non-Euro territories included in the first 22 countries are Mexico with America Movil, Hong Kong with Hutchison, Australia with Optus, Canada with Rogers and Japan with Softbank.

>> News - Vodafone: Will sell iPhone

NEWS: 16 May 2008 16:13 GMT by Katie Scott
The world’s becoming a smaller place but language is still a barrier.

But Google is doing its bit adding 10 new languages to its online translation service.

The new entries are Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hindi, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian and Swedish,

This brings the total number of languages offered to 23.

The update has also seen the introduction of a new cross-translation tool which means you can translate from French to Bulgarian, instead of putting everything in English, if you need to.

And there is also now a Detect Language option, for all of us baffled as to what language a webpage actually is in in the first place.

Developers can download an AJAX language API that will let them embed Google Translate into their web pages.

Google said: “While our system is quite good, we know it’s not perfect” but claims that the ability to translate pages is one of the biggest steps “in making information universally accessible”.

>> Via - PC Pro
>> And - IT Week