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The U.S. State Department is repeating its call for Hungary to “engage directly” with a university founded by billionaire George Soros which may have to leave Budapest because of recent amendments to the law on higher education.   State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Tuesday that the U.S. government wants Hungary to suspend the implementation of the new “discriminatory, onerous requirements,” which she says threaten academic freedom and independence.   Nauert said in a statement that the U.S. government “has no authority or intention” to negotiate about Central European University, as sought by Hungarian officials.   Zoltan Balog, who oversees …

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British police say at least 19 people have been killed and 50 wounded in a massive explosion Monday night at a concert arena in Manchester, England. The explosion occurred just moments after a concert by American pop star Ariana Grande. Authorities say they are treating the blast as a terrorist incident until they know otherwise. Video from the concert showed thousands of concertgoers scrambling and screaming, trying to escape the building. The incident caused transport chaos, with traffic jams outside the venue and rail services being cancelled. A number of audience members were seen walking around the building covered in …

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British police are confirming a number of fatalities after a massive explosion at a concert by American pop star Ariana Grande in Manchester, England Monday night. At least 19 have been killed. Incident is treated as a terrorist attack until police know otherwise. Ambulances were seen rushing to the Manchester Arena venue, and police added in a statement that people should avoid the area. Earlier, several media outlets reported that there were two explosions from within the 21,000-seat venue, but that was not confirmed by authorities. Police have released few details and have not said how many people have been …

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Russian cybercriminals used malware planted on Android mobile devices to steal from domestic bank customers and were planning to target European lenders before their arrest, investigators and sources with knowledge of the case told Reuters. Their campaign raised a relatively small sum by cybercrime standards — more than 50 million roubles ($892,000) — but they had also obtained more sophisticated malicious software for a modest monthly fee to go after the clients of banks in France and possibly a range of other western nations. Russia’s relationship to cybercrime is under intense scrutiny after U.S. intelligence officials alleged that Russian hackers …

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The Belarus government has returned to a policy of large-scale repression, causing a dramatic deterioration in human rights, according to a report published on Monday for submission to next month’s session of the U.N. Human Rights Council. Last month the United States extended sanctions relief for Belarus for a further six months, part of an effort to engage with its veteran leader President Alexander Lukashenko. The European Union last year ended five years of sanctions against Belarus. The report by the Council’s Special Rapporteur on Belarus, Miklos Haraszti, called on the international community to remain vigilant on human rights in …

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Margaret Chan, the outgoing Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), has opened this year’s World Health Assembly (WHA) by staunchly defending the organization against critics who say it has lost its relevance.   Chan’s tenure as head of WHO will soon end and after 10 years of service, she appears intent on handing her successor, who will be elected Tuesday, an organization that is viable and remains the essential leader in global health.   In addressing the WHA for the last time, Chan presented 3,500 delegates from WHO’s 194 member states with, what could be seen, as a …

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A watchdog organization says 31.1 million people were displaced in 2016 within their home countries due to conflict, violence and disasters.  The Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) released a report Monday about the startling statistics. “In 2016, one person every second was forced to flee their home inside their own country,” said Jan Egeland, NRC secretary-general.  “Internally displaced people now outnumber refugees by two to one.  It is urgent to put internal displacement back on the global agenda.” Refugees seek asylum in other countries, giving them legal refugee status, which entitles them to certain …

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“No End in Sight” is the title of the British-based Amnesty International report into the ongoing crackdown in Turkey, after last July’s failed coup. The 21-page report focuses on what it describes as the arbitrary dismissals of more than 100,000 public service workers, since the introduction of emergency rule after a botched military takeover. “People are losing not only their jobs, but also their professional careers are destroyed; their family lives are destroyed; this is a disastrous situation facing a vast number of people,” warns Andrew Gardner, Amnesty’s Turkey researcher, “and there appears no end in sight.”   The Amnesty …

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has formally extended the state of emergency declared after a failed 2016 military coup, saying the decree will remain in place until the country finds “welfare and peace.” Erdogan spoke Sunday in Ankara to tens of thousands of his followers and members of his ruling (AK) Justice and Development Party, which convened to re-elect their party co-founder to the post. The state of emergency permits Erdogan and his Cabinet to issue decrees without parliamentary approval or judicial review.   Erdogan’s announcement and his return as party chief came four weeks after Turkish voters narrowly approved …

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