| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 | 31 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
Today
Videos
Polls
RSS Feed Around the World16. 08. 10. - 13:00
Lazy bums
croatiantimes.com
Cash strapped park officials in China are putting the wind up lazy bums who loaf on their benches for too long - by fitting steel spikes on a coin-operated timer.
If visitors at the Yantai Park in Shangdong province, eastern China, linger too long without feeding the meter, dozens of sharp spikes shoot through the seat.
Park bosses got the idea from an art installation in Germany where sculptor Fabian Brunsing created a similar bench as a protest against the commercialisation of modern life.
"He thought he was exaggerating. He didn't foresee that a very practical country like China might actually use them for real," said one critic.
Parks in China suffer from chronic overcrowding at weekends when millions of people try to escape the country's teeming cities.
"We have to make sure the facilities are shared out evenly and this seems like a fair way to stop people grabbing a bench at dawn and staying there all day," said one park official.
Tag cloud benches protest bums grabbing similar dawn commercialisation Parks didn facilities critic teeming China spikes practical overcrowding created official exaggerating Brunsing
Employers unhappy with public sector status quo
Association of Croatian employers (HUP) has expressed concern over Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic's intention not to cut jobs in the public sector or change labour laws.
No rush from abroad for Croatian property
Foreigners are in no rush to buy up properties in Croatia now that the country has received the green light to join the European Union, some experts believe.
Croatian government faces three big challenges, WB says
The new government's three biggest challenges are urgent fiscal consolidation, structural reforms and maximising benefits from Croatia's upcoming European Union accession, the World Bank (WB) says.
IKEA shopping centre to hire 2,000
The new IKEA shopping center expected to open in over a year in Croatia will be 105,000 square metres, consist of 187 shops, and employ 2,000 people, daily Jutarnji List writes.
HRT introduces optional Croatian subtitles for films from Serbia
Croatian Radio Television appears to have found a compromise to settle a recent polemic discussion on whether to provide Croatian subtitles for movies from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
State companies HEP and HRT champions in overtime pay
The companies HEP and Croatian Radio Television (HRT) are this year's record makers when it comes to paying for overtime, business portal Poslovni Dnevnik writes.
Croatian officials at prayer breakfast with Obamas
State Attorney General Mladen Bajic and several other Croatians have attended the traditional prayer breakfast held by the United States President Barack Obama.
Snow Day announced in Adriatic port of Split
A Snow Day has been announced in tourist destination Split, Croatia.
ZagrebDox festival brings 150 documentaries to Croatia's capital
More than 150 documentaries from around the world will be shown at the eighth annual ZagrebDox festival to be held between 26 February and 4 March in Kaptol Centar Movieplex.
Late Oxford University professor honoured in Dubrovnik, Croatia
A late Oxford University professor has got her stone plaque of honour placed in the centre of the ancient Croatian town of Dubrovnik.
The most popular stories –
last 7 days
