Category: General Interest

Croatians are annoyed by the rounding up of prices. As of January 1, the euro replaced the previous national currency, the kuna (7.53 kuna is 1 euro, 1 kuna is 0.13 euro). The transitional phase will last in Croatia until January 15. Then the kuna will be history. But the suspicion is that retailers and service providers are now using the changeover to round up rather than down when adjusting prices. However, the government made it clear that it would not tolerate unjustified price increases, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic warned.…

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In the U.S., many new Corona infections are due to the XBB.1.5 variant, which has recently become known. It may be more easily transmissible. Most recently, China’s massive CoV infection wave caused a worldwide sensation. In the enormous wave of infections in China, 248 million people, or 18 percent of the population, became infected with Corona in the first three weeks of December, according to officially unconfirmed internal estimates. Subvariants of the Omicron variant continue to circulate the world, and “we see Omicron doing what viruses do: picking up mutations…

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In the U.S., a significant proportion of new Corona infections are due to the XBB.1.5 variant, which has only recently become known. For example, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that XBB.1.5 was behind about 40.5 percent of all new infections in the week leading up to the new year. The variant could be more easily transmissible, according to the CDC. “We have been monitoring XBB.1.5 since mid-November, and its incidence has doubled about every week,” Richard Neher, head of the Evolution of Viruses and Bacteria research group…

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If you use your vacation days wisely in the coming months, you can take advantage of the available window days and maximize your vacation entitlement. For example, 43 vacation days left open can give you a total of 95 days off – that’s three whole months! With four vacation days used, you can already allow yourself a total of eight days off from January 1 to 8 Easter Monday falls on April 9 – with four used vacation days at Easter, there are nine free days from the 8th to…

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New Year’s Day in Austria again sunny and very mildOn New Year’s Day, it will again be sunny and very mild in most of Austria, with highs between twelve and 18 degrees. Especially in the east and south, however, fog or high fog may persist in places, and here it will remain significantly cooler with highs around seven degrees. Warmest turn of the year since measurements began in SwitzerlandIn Switzerland, meanwhile, one of the warmest turn of the year since measurements began in the middle of the 19th century became…

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Traditionally, there is little traffic on the streets of the Croatian capital Zagreb between Christmas Eve and Epiphany. Only in the bank branches, it jams here and there. “That’s how we Croats are,” smiles bank manager Matilda Aljinović, who comes from Split. “Everything that goes, we put off until the last deadline.” Since January 1, 2023, precisely zero o’clock, it is now possible to pay with euros in the youngest EU country. Croatian credit institutions prepared for the change of currency earlier than the citizens. “As a bank, we started…

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From February 2, 2023, the §57a certificate will have a new look and a QR code. With the help of this QR code, an electronic version of the expert opinion can be retrieved from the central database. As of May 20, 2023, the mileage and consumption data of vehicles registered for the first time as of January 1, 2021, must be recorded in the course of the §57a appraisal. This data, including the vehicle identification number, is sent to a central database at the Ministry of Transport and, from there,…

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Today is the last day of the year 2022. Most people won’t shed a tear for this particular year. Tomorrow, January 1, 2023, and the twelve months we have to face are ahead. One way or another, there is no way around it because the hands of the clock always tick the same and never stop. The new year. What will it bring us? Will it be a good one? Will Corona be over soon? Will the war in Ukraine finally end? What faces will it show us? Questions over…

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Given China’s current Corona infection wave, more countries are tightening their controls on people entering the country from the People’s Republic. Spain and South Korea also announced testing obligations on Friday. The German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) considers that currently “not yet necessary” but announced a close-meshed “variant monitoring” at European airports. In Austria, no compulsory testing is currently planned, according to the Ministry of Health. After nearly three years of strict precautions, China’s leadership abruptly ended its zero corona policy on December 7. According to officially unconfirmed internal…

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