Hungary is marking the 20th anniversary of it decision to allow tens of thousands East Germans to cross the Hungarian border and flee to the West. It was a risky decision that contributed to the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Former refugees from then-communist East Germany and aid workers still recall the often traumatic experiences that preceded the mass exodus to freedom.
The United Nations called for the replacement of the U.S. Dollar and the creation of a global reserve bank and a new currency to protect emerging markets from the “confidence game” of financial speculation according to a report obtained by Worthy News.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called on Muslims around the world to mobilize their troops alongside Iran against Israel and the United States to prepare for the coming of the “Mahdi” seen as “the savior of Islam”.
Twenty men, most of them evangelical Christians, were free Friday, August 14, after spending more than a decade in prison as Mexico’s Supreme Court overturned their sentences in a massacre in southern Chiapas state.
The organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE, said Friday, July 24, that Kyrgyzstan’s presidential was overshadowed by widespread irregularities to ensure victory of the incumbent leader Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) on Thursday, July 16, “strongly condemned” the murder of Natalya Estemirova, a prominent journalist and human rights activist who was found dead in Ingushetia, following her kidnapping the previous day at her home in Grozny, the Chechen capital.
The new president of the European Parliament, former Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek, has pledged to make the European Union more accessible to average citizens following a record-low voter turnout in recent European elections. As the first East European politician to take up the post, Buzek faces a difficult task as the bloc suffers under a global economic crisis and tensions over necessary reforms.
Thousands of Bosnian Muslims have prayed and remembered the dead in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica on Saturday, the 14th anniversary of Europe’s worst massacre since World War II. They also re-buried hundreds of victims recently recovered from mass graves.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has called for a new global currency to replace the dollar as the World’s Reserve Currency.
Bulgaria’s main center-right opposition party said Monday, July 6, it would launch coalition talks after winning the country’s first parliamentary elections since it joined the European Union in 2007. The governing Socialists were defeated following several corruption scandals and concerns over the economy.
Croatia is facing political turmoil, after Prime Minister Ivo Sanader suddenly resigned, citing personal reasons.
The European Union and dozens of countries have pledged to speed up social support for Holocaust survivors and the search for art and other items that were stolen during World War II by the Nazis. At a meeting in Prague, they agreed to establish a special European institute to deal with these issues and education.
The people of Albania were going to the polls Sunday, June 28, in parliamentary elections, seen as a key test for the Balkan country’s ambition to join the European Union. Albania’s incumbent Prime Minister Sali Berisha faces a tough fight in the national elections.
Michael Jackson, who became known as ‘the king of pop’, has died of cardiac arrest at the age of 50.
(ADDS DETAINED ACTIVISTS, CHANGING LEAD)
At least 10 reformists were detained before dawn Sunday, June 14, hours after Iranian officials said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected in a landslide victory, the Voice of America (VOA) network reported.
In a potential setback for Christians seeking religious freedom, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was “re-elected”, officials said, but his main rival called the declared victory “treason to the votes of the people.”
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has lost the presidential election, his challenger said, a development that was expected to be welcomed by Christians seeking more religious rights and the United States, where President Barack Obama seeks new relations with the strict Islamic nation.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington was closed Thursday, June 11, after an elderly man known for his anti-Semitic views stormed the building and killed a guard, officials said.
Hungary’s main far-right party, accused by rights groups of spreading anti-Semitic views and hatred towards the country’s up to 800,000 Gypsies, known as Roma, has received three seats in the European Parliament, official results showed.
Lawyer Krisztina Morvai is a beautiful blond mother who smiles on campaign posters of the far-right party, the Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik). However the red, lipstick smile, of Jobbik’s primary candidate for the European Union Parliament soon disappears when asked about her views on Hungary’s estimated 800.000 gypsies, who prefer to be known as the Roma, and Jewish people.