Hungary

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Widely seen as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest ally in the European Union, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has sought to assert Hungary’s neutrality in the war in Ukraine, even as his allies in the EU and NATO assist the embattled country and punish Russia for launching the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II.

BUDAPEST, Mar 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Trade unions and civilians organised yesterday, a large demonstration at the Kossuth square, in front of Parliament in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, demanding higher wages and the right to strike.

The square was reportedly filled with more than 10,000 teachers and students, many dressed in plaid shirts, which have become a symbol of teachers over the last years.

The demonstrators were holding signs such as “We continue to teach, despite meager salaries,” “There is no future without teachers,” and “Who is going to teach tomorrow?”

BUDAPEST/WARSAW, March 20 (Xinhua) -- Hungarian fighter jets were alerted to intercept a civilian plane late Saturday night following information that the plane was carrying a bomb, the defence ministry said in a statement Sunday morning.

"The Hungarian Army's Gripens were alerted on March 19 at night because of a civilian Airbus A321 aircraft," the ministry said, adding that the plane was en route from Georgia to Poland.

"The plane was flying in Romanian airspace when it signaled a bomb threat to civilian air traffic control," the statement added.

BUDAPEST, March 10 (Xinhua) -- The Hungarian parliament on Thursday elected Katalin Novak as the country's first female president for a five-year term, winning over economist Peter Rona in a vote split along party lines.

Novak, nominated by the ruling Fidesz Party, which with its ally, the Christian Democratic People's Party, holds 133 seats in the 199-member parliament, won the election in a vote of 137 to 51, and will take office on May 10.

BUDAPEST, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Hungary is moving closer to the forefront of 5G technology advances, with the completion of digitization at Huawei's European Supply Center (ESC) plant in Paty, 20km west of Budapest, the capital of Hungary.

This development will enable a number of 5G-based Industry 4.0 solutions to support the logistics and manufacturing center, the company said here on Monday.

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — The International Judo Federation has removed the titles and jobs Vladimir Putin and a long-time Kremlin-supporting oligarch held at the organization.

“The International Judo Federation announces that Mr. Vladimir Putin and Mr. Arkady Rotenberg have been removed from all positions held in the International Judo Federation,” the Budapest-based governing body said in a statement late Sunday.

Putin’s honorary presidency of the IJF was suspended last week with the organization citing “the ongoing war conflict in Ukraine.”

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — To Olena, it feels like Vladimir Putin has been chasing her for years.

Fed up with Putin’s government, the Russian citizen left her native country six years ago and moved to Ukraine, where she helped raise funds for women and children whose homes had been destroyed in years of fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas region.

Then, this week, she was on the move again — fleeing her adopted home of Kyiv ahead of Putin’s invaders.

ZAHONY, Hungary (AP) — Some of Ukraine’s most vulnerable citizens have reached safety in Poland through an effort of solidarity and compassion that transcended borders and raised a powerful counterpoint to war.

On Wednesday, a train pulled into the station in Zahony, Hungary carrying about 200 people with severe physical and mental disabilities — residents of two orphanages for the disabled in Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv that were evacuated as Russian forces battered the city.

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary’s right-wing nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orban, has for more than a decade nurtured close political and economic ties with Russia, giving him the reputation as the Kremlin’s closest European Union ally.

For weeks, as Russian President Vladimir Putin amassed tens of thousands of troops along the borders of Ukraine, Hungary’s neighbor to the east, Orban avoided condemning the buildup and spoke emphatically against applying sanctions.

KUBEKHAZA, Hungary/RABE, Serbia, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Portraying Hungary as a border fortress against illegal migration into Europe is a central theme of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's close-fought campaign for re-election on April 3, but Hungary's borders still appear increasingly porous.

France was overwhelmed by migrants, said Orban in a recent speech, while Italy's border was "as leaky as a pasta strainer" - rhetoric seen as a voter-winner in his ruling Fidesz party's rural and conservative strongholds.