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An op-ed published in the New York Times on Tuesday by Roger Cohen, titled "My Jewish State" has shed light on comments Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid made during a sit down with the columnist in August 2013. During their chat last summer, Lapid reiterated his lack of interest in Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Lapid reportedly told Cohen “the fact that we demand from Palestinians a declaration that they recognize Israel as a Jewish state, I just think this is rubbish. I don’t need that. The whole point of Israel was we came here saying we...

BUDAPEST, Hungary -- What do you do when you learn you are not the person you thought you were, when you learn you are the very thing you hated? It was a question Csanad Szegedi was confronted with -- one that led to a remarkable transformation. Szegedi was once a rising star in Hungary's third largest and most controversial political parties, Jobbik. Jobbik has been labeled fascist and anti-Semitic. Its leader once asked for a list of all the Jews in Hungarian government. And Szegedi, still in his 20s, was on a trajectory to lead the party someday. "I joined...

Now here’s something that doesn’t happen every day: a SWAT team raided the Budapest set of Marc Forster’s big-budget zombie pic World War Z earlier today and seized a number of weapons that were being used in the film. Police confiscated 85 fully-functional weapons (read: not prop guns) from a warehouse that was being used by the production. Most of the weapons were of the automatic, military-style assault variety which is a very big no-no to transport internationally without authorization. Hit the jump for the full story, including star Brad Pitt’s reaction. Apparently the paperwork for the guns claimed that...

According to reports from the Associated Press, Budapest's mayor says Elvis Presley will be declared a posthumous honorary citizen of Hungary's capital, and a city landmark will be named after him. Mayor Istvan Tarlos says that Elvis will be commemorated because of his support for Hungary in the wake of the short-lived, anti-Soviet revolution of October 1956. On the city's website, visitors can pick one of 12 locations to be renamed after Elvis, including street crossings and a site at the foot of Margaret Bridge, which spans the Danube River. Voting ends on March 15. During Elvis' last appearance on...

The No. 3 reactor block of the embattled Kola Nuclear Power Plant was shut down today by its automatic switch off in what is a seeming series of more and more incidents at the Kola, and well as other Russian NPPs. In a release on Kola NPP’s website, operators said that, “at 1:38 am on September 28, the automatic protection switch of the No. 3 reactor block shut the unit down as a result of a malfunction in one of the elements in the system responsible for pressure control in the first compartment. The reason for the malfunction is being...

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says he hopes a series of arrests over an alleged spy ring in the US will not harm US-Russian relations. Mr Putin told former US President Bill Clinton in Moscow that US police had "let themselves go" and were putting people in prison. The FBI claims the spy ring had been operating for more than a decade Ten people have been arrested in the US and one in Cyprus after an FBI inquiry. The Russian foreign ministry has said the US allegations are baseless and a throwback to the Cold War. The 10 people arrested...

One of the earliest villas in Budapest is being excavated at Bécsi út 262 (District III), reports the Budapest History Museum. The site is of special importance, as it fits well into the line of villas previously found in the area, providing more information on the location and extension of villa farms around Aquincum, wrote Krisztián Anderkó, the archaeologist leading the excavations, on the museum's website. Ruins of the Roman building complex were discovered following several months of excavation work at a plot destined to become a hypermarket. The Office of Cultural Heritage had ordered the excavation to be carried...

Charlize Theron has referred to the Turkish city of Istanbul as Budapest three times in an interview about her "backpacking" adventures around the world. Theron, an Oscar winner known for taking on tough roles, described buying Turkish carpets in a bazaar and attending the Istanbul International Film Festival in "Budapest", the Daily Mail reports.

Fifty years on, revolution still divides Hungary By David Chance and Gergely Szakacs Fri Oct 20, 7:41 AM ET Freedom fighters sit on top of a tank with a revolutionary flag in Budapest at the time of the uprising against the Soviet-supported Hungarian communist regime in 1956. Hungary will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1956 uprising on October 23. The picture was taken in the period between October 23 and November 4, 1956. (Laszlo Almasi/Reuters) BUDAPEST (Reuters) - The diary of Gyula Csics for October 23, 1956, starts with a 12-year-old boy tending his grandfathers' graves and ends with...

For Péter Zwack, the prominent Hungarian businessman and descendant of a famous liquor-producer family, there is no doubt that Ronald Reagan and his foreign policy changed his whole life. “If Reagan had not been in the White House, the Iron Curtain would never have fallen—and I never would have come back to Hungary and never would have served as the first ambassador of the democratic Hungary to Washington,” said Zwack, 79, during the September 22 unveiling ceremony of Ronald Reagan's bust in Budapest City Park. Zwack's family fled to America in 1948 after the Communist Party came to power in...

OTTÓ GYEPES still remembers when corpses rather than protest posters were dangling from the lampposts of Budapest. As Hungary’s “goulash revolt” entered its fifth day yesterday and bandana-wearing youths prepared for another night of arson, the country was trying to break free from its memories of the incomparably more brutal suppression of a revolution 50 years ago.Hungary is in the grip of a kind of exorcism rather than a mere power struggle. “There were terrible scenes then,” said Mr Gyepes, who was a 24-year-old lorry driver when the Hungarians took to the streets against communism in 1956. “There were burnt-out...

Adding spice to the scandal, Gyurcsany's comments were full of crude remarks and called into doubt the abilities of some of Hungary's most respected economic experts.A leaked recording that caught Hungary's prime minister admitting the government had lied about the economy - keeping it afloat through "tricks'' and relying on "divine providence'' - has prompted protests outside parliament and calls for his resignation. The tape was made at a closed-door meeting in late May, weeks after Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany's government became the first in post-communist Hungary to win re-election. It seemed to confirm the worst accusations levelled at...

Two-second penalties for both Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher set up a thrilling qualifying session for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday afternoon. With the two key championship contenders eliminated before the top-ten shootout, the honours for pole position fell right at the very end to McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen, whose last-gasp lap of 1m 19.599s came just as Felipe Massa looked to have bagged the first Formula One pole of his career. Also, Hungarian Grand Prix stewards have cancelled American Scott Speed’s three fastest qualifying times as punishment for impeding another driver during Saturday’s session. The move means the Toro...

If Hungarian voters have their way then Budapest could be the home for the first bridge in the world to be named after Chuck Norris, the high-kicking star of countless action movies. The Ministry of Economy and Transport could well be kicking itself after the star become an early front runner in an online poll organised by the ministry to name a new bridge across the Danube. Almost 9000 people have voted for the "Chuck Norris Bridge". The name was suggested by somebody who said that it would be a good idea because "there is no such bridge in the...

After being in Vienna for the EU-US summit for talks ranging from the Iran nuclear standoff to ways of reducing the West's foreign energy dependence, President and Mrs. Bush arrived in Budapest for a brief visit. The Bush's and SoS Rice listened to the Vienna Boys' Choir, among other cultural activities. President and Mrs. Bush participated in a roundtable with foreign students in Vienna.

President George W Bush is well aware that he will face more criticism than praise when he visits Europe next week. US media, which are attaching little importance to the US-EU summit in Vienna and Bush's subsequent trip to Budapest, has noted the announcement of demonstrations planned in Vienna along with the attacks from controversial Austrian politician Joerg Haider. Haider, governor of Carinthia Province, has termed Bush a 'war criminal.' This is unlikely to bother the president. The three-day trip is intended as a warm-up for talks in July with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Germany, a meeting with Russian...

02 March 2006, 12:57 Hungarian government to finance the restoration of a Russian cathedral in Budapest Moscow, March 2, Interfax - In a friendly gesture in response to the return of the Sarospatak Library to Hungary, the Hungarian government will finance the restoration of the Cathedral of the Dormition in Budapest, the official web-site of the Russian Orthodox Church has reported on Thursday. This was mentioned yesterday in a talk between Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria and Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany when Bishop Hilarion thanked the prime minister for this decision made by the Hungarian government on the...

Budapest to wipe out dog waste Wed Aug 24, 2005 11:14 AM BST BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary's capital is launching a 200-million-forint (500.000 pounds) campaign to rid itself of hundreds of tonnes of dog waste which land on the city's sidewalks and parks each year, the daily Nepszabadsag reported. City officials estimate that Budapest's 400,000 dogs produce around 14,600 tonnes of dog waste each year, more than the weight of the Eiffel Tower and the London Eye combined, creating a health hazard and a public nuisance. The city will spend the money on public awareness television advertisements, hundreds of dog...

Budapest — Kimi Raikkonen blew away the field Sunday at the Hungarian Grand Prix, winning by 35.5 seconds for his fourth victory of the season. Pole-sitter Michael Schumacher finished a distant second, with his brother, Ralf Schumacher, taking third. Raikkonen's sixth career victory gave him 61 points this season, second to Formula One points leader Fernando Alonso. Alonso finished out of the points, but still holds a commanding lead with 87 points.

On Friday, July 1, in Budapest, Hungary, the city council approved placing a monument of former President Reagan in the capital city park. It is the first time a former Soviet bloc elected government has voted to erect a monument in honor of the President for his role in ending the Cold War and freeing Eastern Europe from Communist oppression. Népszabadság, Hungary's largest national newspaper (and the former Communist Party mouthpiece), reported that the support for the monument crossed all party lines, a rarity in Hungarian politics