Andersen's Achievements Take Her To Croatia

[Ivana]

Volleyball player Krista Andersen of Lakeland won a silver medal in a national tournament earlier this month; now she seeks additional honors in Croatia later this week.

Andersen, 16, played with the Tampa Bay Juniors 17 Black team, which placed second in the USA Volleyball Junior Olympics in Minneapolis, a five-day tournament with 48 teams from across the country.

She was named to the 12-player All-Tournament team along with Tampa teammates Kelly Katanach and Janica Mollet.

The Indiana Dunes won the 17-under tournament, beating Tampa Bay Black, 25-21, 18-25, 15-13.

An outside hitter at six feet, the Lakeland High School rising junior was named to the Florida High Performance Junior National team, which will compete in the European Challenge Volleyball Tournament in Croatia beginning Saturday.

Andersen, who could not disguise her excitement, leaves Thursday.

"I have never been to Europe before," she said. "I know it's going to be a great experience."

She is the daughter of Randy Anderson, a local banker, and Lynn Andersen, who has coached middle school volleyball atSt. Joseph's Lutheran for six years.

"I think my size comes from dad, who is 6-4, but my mom has played and taught, and she is pretty tall, too."

The European tournament will have teams from Slovenia, Bavaria, Bosnia, Italy, Montenegro, Croatia, and Russia, plus United States teams from California, Texas and Florida.

The National team Andersen is playing on is coached by Jeff Lamm, associate head coach at the University of Tampa.

Lamm said he has watched Andersen's progress through the travel-ball season and the USAV nationals.

"She is a young player who hasn't yet touched her potential," Lamm said.

"She has made tremendous development," Lamm said. "Her ball control has improved so much; her potential is without limit. She could play outside or middle,depending on how tall she gets. She jumps well."

Andersen turned 16 in April and still has another year in the age group.

"She was the youngest player on her club team and ended up being the leader, their go-to player," Lamm said.

Andersen's athletic background includes soccer and volleyball. "I tried basketball and attempted tennis and golf."

She wound up playing volleyball at St. Paul's and with the Lakeland Volleyball Association (LAVA) for a couple of years before joining the Tampa BayJuniors in January.

"I love it," she said.

An honor student at Lakeland High, she plays middle hitter on the Dreadnaughts' varsity team. Later this year, she could be joined by sister Lauren Andersen, a setter.

The Lakeland team is coached by Crystal Ramsey.

"Here is an interesting fact," Krista said. "Every single starter at Lakeland could be from St. Paul's Lutheran."

[Freak U Full]

Pocar’s law suit was confirmed by the Hague tribunal’s spokesman. European Commission head suggested Croatia to desist.

Fausto Pocar, president of the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, accused Croatia of trying to influence the tribunal’s trials because of its sentences to the “Vukovar Three”, Jutarnji list writes.

Pocar’s law suit before the U.N. was confirmed by the tribunal’s spokesman, Liam McDowell. The head of the European Commission’s delegation, Vincent Degert, suggested to Croatia to refrain from further protests at the U.N.

No official stance about the law suit has been issued by the Croatian government or president, while Forein Minister Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic supported the arguments of Prime Minister Ivo Sanader.

She stressed that as one of the founding countries of the tribunal, Croatia had the right to its opinion.

Experts, who asked to remain anonymous, said Pecar’s letter was an evident attempt to protect the tribunal’s dignity and to respond to Sanader’s statements and activities, Jutarnji list writes.

[Freak U Full]

At the time of writing, Bosnia and Herzegovina is facing a moment of truth.

Will political leaders, at last, do what they said they would do two years ago and reach an agreement that meets the EU’s famous three principles on police reform? Or will they not? That choice needs to be made now – by October 15, when EU foreign ministers are due to issue a statement on Bosnia. There can be no more delay.

If they do, Bosnia will be on one path – positive, forward-looking, leading quickly to initialling the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, SAA, with Brussels, thereby paving the way for closer relations with the EU. After that it would move towards signing the SAA, becoming a candidate for EU membership, and eventually joining the EU.

However, if Bosnia’s politicians fail to agree, their country will be on a different track – stuck in the past, overtaken on the journey to Europe by all its neighbours.

That is the stark choice that has to be made, and a positive decision needs to be based on the EU’s three principles which stipulate that police legislation and the budget are determined at the Bosnian state level; the police are free of political interference; and police districts are established in line with professional criteria rather than on the basis of the inter-entity boundaries.

The international community is not neutral in this choice. Of course we want Bosnia to choose the path of integration, of joining the EU and NATO. That is because we know that membership of those organisations is good for the citizens of any country, and will be particularly beneficial for a state, like Bosnia, that is emerging from conflict. But we cannot possibly want this to happen more than the citizens of Bosnia must want it. We can help those in authority but we cannot make that choice for them.

Our future approach in this country will depend on the choice made. If the positive path is chosen, our engagement can change too. We can focus less on the backward-looking Bonn Powers and High Representative functions, and more on the forward-looking relationship with the EU. The citizens of Bosnia will be able to receive all the benefits that come from a closer relationship with the EU.

Just look at how much more Croatia receives from the EU than Bosnia does: two and a half times as much now, rising to 15 times as much when Croatia joins the EU. The closer to actually joining the EU a country comes, the greater the prospects of significant funding from the EU.

Looking at the countries that joined the EU in 2004, their annual growth is up, their employment is up, and their levels of foreign direct investment are dramatically up.

The figures are compelling, but money is only part of it. There are all sorts of other benefits Croatia enjoys, compared with Bosnia. It has many more twinning and technical assistance projects, a better functioning judicial system, less corruption, safer food, improved education, more effective public services, and so on.

And of course then there is the question of visas. Croatia will want to join Schengen as soon as it can after joining the EU. Without similar progress, Bosnian citizens will find themselves living very close to the external Schengen border but unable to travel freely across it.

So the benefits of accelerating as fast as possible along the EU track are compelling. But if leaders fail to reach a satisfactory agreement on police reform, then we will have to consider other options, including a return to the approach of more muscular intervention that we had hoped to leave behind.

Over recent months and years, we have increasingly given space to Bosnian leaders to lead their country. I still believe that was the right approach, for all of us. But if that approach leads to stagnation and worse, we must change it. That is why this week is a moment of truth.

[Freak U Full]

The retrial of a former Croatian police officer convicted in the 1991 murder of three police officials has opened in Croatia's eastern city of Osijek.

Anton Gudelj pleaded not guilty to charges of killing police chief Josip Reihl-Kir and two Croatian Serbs in July 1991. All three victims were known for their efforts to ease ethnic tensions in the Osijek area during fighting that broke out after Croatia declared independence from the former Yugoslavia.

Gudelj fled abroad, and a Croatian court sentenced him to 20 years in prison in absentia in 1994.

German authorities returned him to Croatia two years later to serve his term, but Croatian officials released him under an amnesty in 1997.

He later went to Australia. Croatia's Constitutional Court reinstated the case against him in 2001, and Australian authorities extradited him earlier this year.