Hungary

BUDAPEST, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- A bus accident near Hungary's capital left eight people dead and 48 people wounded, local authorities said Sunday.

"Eight people died at the scene, two were seriously injured and forty-six lightly injured in a bus crash that occurred Sunday morning on the M7 motorway near Szabadbattyan," said a statement from the Fejer County Police Headquarters.

According to the police, the accident happened on early Sunday morning local time at the edge of the M7 motorway leading to Budapest. The bus had a Hungarian license plate.

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — A new study suggests that a Sinopharm vaccine offers poor protection from COVID-19 among the elderly, raising questions for dozens of countries that have given the Chinese company’s shots to their most vulnerable populations.

A survey of blood samples taken from 450 people in Hungary at least two weeks after their second Sinopharm dose found that 90% under 50 years old developed protective antibodies. But the percentage declined with age, and 50% of those over 80 had none.

13 July 2021; MEMO: Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto yesterday called on the European Union to resolve problems with Turkey on the issue of migrants and refugees as soon as possible, while Ankara seeks to renew a 2016 pact on the matter.

"The coronavirus pandemic and migration will determine the world politics and economy in the future, and the EU should be prepared for this," Szijjarto told reporters following an EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels.

(Reuters) --- Hungary's parliament passed legislation on Tuesday that bans the dissemination of content in schools deemed to promote homosexuality and gender change, amid strong criticism from human rights groups and opposition parties.

Hardline nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who faces an election next year, has grown increasingly radical on social policy, railing against LGBT people and immigrants in his self-styled illiberal regime, which has deeply divided Hungarians.

(Reuters) --- Hungary on Wednesday approved a bill essential to the European Union's massive recovery fund, bringing the bloc a step closer to putting the deal into operation and hopefully ending Europe's coronavirus-induced slump.

The 27 EU nations made an unprecedented agreement last year to jointly borrow 750 billion euros ($918 billion) for the fund. But all 27 must ratify a decision to raise the upper limit for national contributions for the plan to go ahead.

Until Wednesday, Hungary was one of a handful yet to do so.

(Reuters) --- Budapest mayor Gergely Karacsony on Saturday announced his bid to become the prime minister candidate for Hungary's six opposition parties which are trying to forge an alliance to take on Prime Minister Viktor Orban in national elections next year.

Earlier this week, the Hungarian opposition said it would hold the country's first ever primary elections this year to pick joint candidates to contest the 2022 ballot, a move that could threaten Orban's more than decade-long grip on power. 

(Reuters) --- Lobbying by Poland and Hungary has led to the removal of the phrase "gender equality" from a draft declaration on advancing social cohesion that the EU is due to publish on Friday, according to diplomats and documents seen by Reuters.

Poland's nationalist ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) and its eurosceptic ally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, promote what they call traditional social values at home and have repeatedly clashed with their more liberal Western peers over the rights of women, gays and migrants.

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Piles of garbage, discarded debris and abandoned buildings are scattered across a post-industrial area on the left bank of the Danube River, just south of the grandiose downtown of Hungary’s capital, Budapest.

The area has been unused for decades, languishing in post-socialist decay in the 30 years since anti-communist firebrands pressed for the end of Soviet domination in Hungary at the end of the 1980s.

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary on Saturday loosened several COVID-19 restrictions for people with government-issued immunity cards, the latest in a series of reopening measures that have followed an ambitious vaccination campaign.

As of Saturday, individuals with the plastic cards may enter indoor dining rooms, hotels, theaters, cinemas, spas, gyms, libraries, museums and other recreational venues. Opening hours for businesses were extended to 11 p.m. and an overnight curfew in place since November will now start later, at midnight.

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — More than two dozen Hungarian media outlets on Wednesday sent an open letter to the government demanding greater transparency and access to hospitals for journalists covering the COVID-19 pandemic.

Only Hungary’s state media have been allowed inside COVID wards, and journalists have complained that a government order prohibiting medical staff from speaking to reporters has made it impossible to report on worsening conditions inside hospitals, creating a false picture of the situation’s severity.