Word: hungarians
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...globe-trotting envoy for U.S. Presidents from Harry Truman to Richard Nixon?who appointed him deputy director of the cia in 1972. He retired after four years and in 1981 started a 10-year stint as a diplomat including three at the U.N. DIED. NANDOR HIDEGKUTI, 79, legendary Hungarian footballer who was part of the Hungarian squad that won gold at the 1952 Olympics, but was famed as a member of the"Golden Team" that inflicted on England its first defeat at home by an overseas side when it beat them 6-3 at Wembley Stadium in 1953; in Budapest...
...empire leaves many orphans. When the Austro-Hungarian Empire was dismantled after World War I, one third of Central Europe's ethnic Hungarians were cut off from the motherland. Later, under communist rule, their ethnic and national identities were actively suppressed. Now the Hungarian government is offering a belated homecoming to the 3.5 million ethnic Hungarians living in neighboring countries with a new "status law" that came into force last month. The legislation extends generous benefits to people of Hungarian descent in the region - ranging from stipends for Hungarian-language schooling to subsidized travel and facilitated work permits...
Hajnal Varga, 43, an office manager in the Romanian university town of Cluj-Napoca, isn't complaining though. In the bad old days of communism, Romanian authorities discouraged the use of the Hungarian language in public and banned broadcasts of Hungarian media - even though a quarter of the town's population is ethnic Hungarian. Varga recalls hauling her family's black-and-white TV up a nearby hillside to pick up Hungarian football matches from across the border 150 km away. Last week Varga submitted her application for a Hungarian status card, which resembles a passport with a stylized crown...
Varga is one of about 50,000 Romanians who have applied for the status cards over the past month. In Serbia, demand is so high that 25 Serbs tried to pass themselves off - unsuccessfully - as Hungarian in order to get cards. Despite its popularity, the law has drawn fire from officials in some neighboring countries, who argue that it violates their sovereignty and discriminates against non-ethnic Hungarians. "This law is part of an attempt to reclaim old territories," says Gheorghe Funar, the mayor of Cluj-Napoca, whose civic initiatives include banning bilingual signs and painting everything from park benches...
Western diplomats concede that the law is more far-reaching than others of its kind. A European Union report last year noted the "appearance of discrimination" in its provisions. But the main problem is how the legislation was sold. "Now we shall realize the reunification of the Hungarian nation across borders," said right-wing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban when he introduced the measure last year. This month he declared that the law will succeed despite those "who want to sprinkle salt on the wound torn open 80 years ago." Slovakia, not surprisingly, bridled at such talk. Earlier this month...