Paul AmesJune 18, 2013 12:46

Laszlo Csatary had topped the most-wanted list of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Los Angles-based human rights organization named for the Holocaust survivor who spearheaded global efforts to hunt down Nazi fugitives after the war.

Google Street View adds Hungary and Lesotho

Samantha StainburnApril 23, 2013 18:26

Basotho living abroad, returned Peace Corps volunteers and Prince Harry will no doubt enjoy being able to take the yellow Google Maps man for a stroll down Kingsway in downtown Maseru. And homesick Hungarians can now walk along the Danube virtually.

Hungary’s 'Viktator' stages a power grab

Barry NeildMarch 16, 2013 00:00

LONDON — Hungarian democracy has seen darker days: Memories of the brutal Soviet repression are still very much present, particularly from 1956, when tanks roared through Budapest’s streets to put down an anti-communist uprising. Although the country’s latest political upheavals have come about peacefully, however, critics of the right-wing government say it’s staging another assault on democracy with a drive to change the constitution that’s provoking anger in the European Union and riding roughshod over the economy.

Laszlo Csatary, Nazi war crimes suspect, arrested in Hungary

News DeskJuly 18, 2012 07:53

The Simon Weisenthal Center's head Nazi hunter, Efraim Zuroff, described Csatary's arrest as "a great victory and very important one."

Hungary's president resigns over plagiarism scandal

Tim FitzsimonsApril 2, 2012 08:08

Semmelweis University found that the president's thesis was "mostly copied."

Michael GoldfarbMarch 16, 2012 08:06

Hungary's Orban takes on the EU

Hungarian Prime Minister discovers the joys of Brussels bashing

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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban delivering his broadside against the EU yesterday in Budapest. (FERENC ISZA/AFP/Getty Images)

As I said in a post last week, the EU has already created something akin to the United States of Europe. Certainly this is true culturally. In America there is Washington-bashing. It's equivalent in Europe is Brussels-bashing.

Yesterday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban hit out at Brussels with a rhetorical sledge-hammer.

Hungarian national airline Malev collapses

Luke BrowneFebruary 3, 2012 09:52

Malev’s folding comes just days after Spanair, Spain’s fourth-largest airline, suddenly collapsed, leaving more than 30,000 passengers stranded across Europe and Africa.

Death toll in Eastern Europe rises as big freeze continues

Hélène HofmanFebruary 2, 2012 06:08

“We are barely coping," says Bosnian villager, Radenka Jeftovic

Iva Roze SkochJanuary 27, 2012 16:02

On the town in Budapest: Gays hit the straight bar for hetero men

Welcome to Coronita, otherwise known as “the bar where gay men go to pick up straight men.”

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Coronita, an after-party bar in Budapest, Hungary. Otherwise known as "the bar where gay men go to pick up straight men" (I.Roze/GlobalPost)

Earlier this month when I was in Budapest, I accidentally found an after-party place called Coronita.

Among locals, it is casually known as “the bar where gay men go to pick up heterosexual men.”

Apparently, this concept isn’t at all unusual.

“It’s a straight club,” says Akos, a local gay man. “But the gays go there around 5 a.m. to pick the men who haven’t managed to pick up any women all night, but don’t want to go home alone.”

It’s not the first time I was confronted with this kind of “situational sexuality,” which is fairly widespread in Eastern Europe.

I have previously researched the phenomenon of straight men who are “gay for pay” or lesbians prostitutes, who make a living by having sex with men. Both instances were heavily aided by drugs, as is -- quite clearly -- “the bar where gay men go to pick up straight men.”

Still, drugs or no drugs, one can’t help but wonder: who are these men who “haven’t managed to pick up any women all night, but don’t want to go home alone?"

And who exactly are these gay men who prey on the “straight scraps?” Doesn't the stereotype have it that gay men are much pickier than heterosexual men and women about who they have sex with?

It was the late Christopher Hitchens, who put it best in his memoir, Hitch 22, when he described his 30s this way:

Michael GoldfarbJanuary 10, 2012 12:38

Hungarian government back tracks: a little

Foreign minister Janos Martonyi indicates controversial constitutional changes may be rescinded

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Hungarian Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi surrounded by the stars of the EU. The EU is demanding the Hungarian government restore independence to its central bank as a condition of backing its request for bailout funds from the IMF. (GEORGES GOBET/AFP/Getty Images)

Debtors can't be choosers is the lesson for Hungary's extreme right-wing government. The government of Viktor Orban has brought in major constitutional changes in recent weeks The Hungarian opposition say these undermine democracy via rigid gerrymandering of electoral districts and restrictions on freedom of the press among other things.

The IMF, from whom Hungary wants more money, is exercised by constitutional changes that undermine the central bank's independence. So is the EU which must give its bona fides for Hungary to get the loan. No more money until that problem is fixed.