Police in Budapest expelled several hundred protesters early yesterday from a square outside parliament as Hungary commemorated the 50th anniversary of its anti-Soviet uprising.
Protests on Kossuth Square started on Sept. 17, when a recording was leaked revealing Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany admitting that the government had lied about the economy before its re-election in April. The protesters had vowed to stay until Gyurcsany was dismissed, but police pushed them off the square after they refused to submit to checks.
But authorities did not dismantle the dozens of tents set up by the protesters, and were expected to allow the demonstrators to return after yesterday's official events.
PHOTO: AP
As the commemoration events began, reporters from state news wire MTI said police had beaten some of the protesters -- including women and elderly people -- with rubber batons, leaving several with head injuries.
President Laszlo Solyom on Sunday issued a plea for national unity, trying to keep the bitter political divisions from spilling over into the celebrations.
"Oct. 23 could be a real national holiday if we wanted it to be and if we took the steps leading back to the unity and uniqueness of 1956," Solyom said at a gala event at the Hungarian State Opera which launched the official ceremonies.
Commemorations began yesterday with a ceremonial raising of the national flag, followed by Hungarian and foreign dignitaries laying flowers at the foot of a 1956 monument on Kossuth Square.
Officials later attended a special session in the legislature's Upper House Chamber, where Gyurcsany and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso spoke.
"Our debates on 1956 are not about the past, but the present. About who we are, what kind of world we would like," Gyurcsany said. "1956 is just a reminder, a mirror in which we see our present selves."
He described Imre Nagy, the communist-turned-democrat who was briefly returned to power in 1956, as "the political predecessor of every prime minister" of post-communist Hungary.
Barroso said the 1956 revolution "lit a torch of freedom" which later helped topple dictatorships across Europe.
"The courage of the -- often anonymous -- heroes of 1956 led to the foundation of new democracies and the reunification of Europe," Barroso said.
Delegations from at least 56 countries were in Budapest for the ceremonies, including NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Spain's King Juan Carlos.
PROVOCATIVE: Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Sun Lei accused Japan of sending military vessels to deliberately provoke tensions in the Taiwan Strait China denounced remarks by Japan and the EU about the South China Sea at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, and accused Tokyo of provocative behavior in the Taiwan Strait and planning military expansion. Ayano Kunimitsu, a Japanese vice foreign minister, told the Council meeting on maritime security that Tokyo was seriously concerned about the situation in the East China and South China seas, and reiterated Japan’s opposition to any attempt to change the “status quo” by force, and obstruction of freedom of navigation and overflight. Stavros Lambrinidis, head of the EU delegation to the UN, also highlighted South China Sea
The final batch of 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks purchased from the US arrived at Taipei Port last night and were transported to the Armor Training Command in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), completing the military’s multi-year procurement of 108 of the tanks. Starting at 12:10am today, reporters observed more than a dozen civilian flatbed trailers departing from Taipei Port, each carrying an M1A2T tank covered with black waterproof tarps. Escorted by military vehicles, the convoy traveled via the West Coast Expressway to the Armor Training Command, with police implementing traffic control. The army operates about 1,000 tanks, including CM-11 Brave Tiger
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said it expects its 2-nanometer (2nm) chip capacity to grow at a compound annual rate of 70 percent from this year to 2028. The projection comes as five fabs begin volume production of 2-nanometer chips this year — two in Hsinchu and three in Kaohsiung — TSMC senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer Cliff Hou (侯永清) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Silicon Valley, California, last week. Output in the first year of 2-nanometer production, which began in the fourth quarter of last year, is expected to
Taiwan’s drone exports surged past US$100 million in the first quarter, exceeding last year’s full-year total, with the Czech Republic emerging as the largest buyer, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Exports of complete drones reached US$115.85 million in the period, about 1.2 times the total recorded for all of last year, the ministry said in a report. Exports to the Czech Republic accounted for about US$100 million, far outpacing other markets. Poland, last year’s top destination, recorded about US$11.75 million in the first quarter. Taiwan’s drone exports have expanded rapidly in the past few years, with last year’s total
RSS