Airports:
69 (2010) country comparison to the world: 73
Airports - with paved runways:
total: 23
over 3,047 m: 2
2,438 to 3,047 m: 6
1,524 to 2,437 m: 3
914 to 1,523 m: 3
under 914 m: 9 (2010)
Airports - with unpaved runways:
total: 46
1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
914 to 1,523 m: 7
under 914 m: 38 (2010)
Heliports:
1 (2010)
Pipelines:
gas 1,327 km; oil 583 km (2009)
Railways:
total: 2,722 km country comparison to the world: 63 standard gauge: 2,722 km 1.435-m gauge (985 km electrified) (2009)
Roadways:
total: 29,248 km (includes 1,043 km of expressways) (2008) country comparison to the world: 99
Waterways:
785 km (2009) country comparison to the world: 74
Merchant marine:
total: 75 country comparison to the world: 56 by type: bulk carrier 24, cargo 7, chemical tanker 6, passenger/cargo 27, petroleum tanker 10, refrigerated cargo 1
foreign-owned: 2 (Norway 2)
registered in other countries: 33 (Bahamas 1, Belize 1, Liberia 2, Malta 7, Marshall Islands 12, Panama 2, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 8) (2010)
Ports and terminals:
Omisalj, Ploce, Rijeka, Sibernik, Split, Vukovar (on Danube River)
Military ::Croatia
Military branches:
Armed Forces of the Republic of Croatia (Oruzane Snage Republike Hrvatske, OSRH), consists of five major commands directly subordinate to a General Staff: Ground Forces (Hrvatska Kopnena Vojska, HKoV), Naval Forces (Hrvatska Ratna Mornarica, HRM; includes coast guard), Air Force and Air Defense Command, Joint Education and Training Command, Logistics Command; Military Police Force supports each of the three Croatian military forces (2010)
Military service age and obligation:
18–27 years of age for compulsory military service; 16 years of age with consent for voluntary service; 6-month conscript service obligation; full conversion to voluntary military service by 2010 (2006)
Manpower available for military service:
males age 16–49: 1,021,904
females age 16–49: 1,023,465 (2010 est.)
Manpower fit for military service:
males age 16–49: 770,574
females age 16–49: 844,594 (2010 est.)
Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:
male: 27,670
female: 26,503 (2010 est.)
Military expenditures:
2.39% of GDP (2005 est.) country comparison to the world: 64
Transnational Issues ::Croatia
Disputes - international:
dispute remains with Bosnia and Herzegovina over several small sections of the boundary related to maritime access that hinders ratification of the 1999 border agreement; the Croatia-Slovenia land and maritime boundary agreement, which would have ceded most of Pirin Bay and maritime access to Slovenia and several villages to Croatia, remains unratified and in dispute; Slovenia also protests Croatia's 2003 claim to an exclusive economic zone in the Adriatic; as a European Union peripheral state, Slovenia imposed a hard border Schengen regime with non-member Croatia in December 2007
Refugees and internally displaced persons:
IDPs: 2,900–7,000 (Croats and Serbs displaced in 1992–95 war) (2007)
Illicit drugs:
transit point along the Balkan route for Southwest Asian heroin to Western Europe; has been used as a transit point for maritime shipments of South American cocaine bound for Western Europe (2008)
page last updated on January 20, 2011
======================================================================
@Cuba (Central America and Caribbean)
Introduction ::Cuba
Background:
The native Amerindian population of Cuba began to decline after the European discovery of the island by Christopher COLUMBUS in 1492 and following its development as a Spanish colony during the next several centuries. Large numbers of African slaves were imported to work the coffee and sugar plantations, and Havana became the launching point for the annual treasure fleets bound for Spain from Mexico and Peru. Spanish rule eventually provoked an independence movement and occasional rebellions that were harshly suppressed. US intervention during the Spanish-American War in 1898 assisted the Cubans in overthrowing Spanish rule. The Treaty of Paris established Cuban independence from the US in 1902 after which the island experienced a string of governments mostly dominated by the military and corrupt politicians. Fidel CASTRO led a rebel army to victory in 1959; his iron rule held the subsequent regime together for nearly five decades. He stepped down as president in February 2008 in favor of his younger brother Raul CASTRO. Cuba's Communist revolution, with Soviet support, was exported throughout Latin America and Africa during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The country faced a severe economic downturn in 1990 following the withdrawal of former Soviet subsidies worth $4 billion to $6 billion annually. Cuba at times portrays the US embargo, in place since 1961, as the source if its difficulties. Illicit migration to the US - using homemade rafts, alien smugglers, air flights, or via the southwest border - is a continuing problem. The US Coast Guard intercepted 982 individuals attempting to cross the Straits of Florida in fiscal year 2009.
Geography ::Cuba
Location:
Caribbean, island between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic
Ocean, 150 km south of Key West, Florida
Geographic coordinates:
21 30 N, 80 00 W
Map references:
Central America and the Caribbean
Area:
total: 110,860 sq km country comparison to the world: 105 land: 109,820 sq km
water: 1,040 sq km
Area - comparative:
slightly smaller than Pennsylvania
Land boundaries:
total: 29 km
border countries: US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay 29 km
note: Guantanamo Naval Base is leased by the US and remains part of Cuba
Coastline:
3,735 km
Maritime claims:
territorial sea: 12 nm
contiguous zone: 24 nm
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
Climate:
tropical; moderated by trade winds; dry season (November to April); rainy season (May to October)
Terrain: