Hungary heatwave kills hundreds

Up to 500 people have died in the past week from a heatwave in Hungary, a top health official has said.

 Anna Paldy, deputy director of the National Institute of Environmental Health, told the BBC that the figure included 230 deaths in central Hungary.

The deaths – from 15 to 22 July – were caused by heatstroke, cardiovascular problems and other illnesses aggravated by the heat, she said.

Some 30 people have also died in the heatwave in neighbouring Romania.

Ms Paldy told the BBC News website that the death rate from heat in Hungary was the highest in recent years.

The daily mean temperature in the past week had reached 30C, she said.

In the southern city of Kiskunhalas, the temperature reached a record high of 41.9C.

(BBC; Image: AP)

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EU talks to thrash out new treaty

The EU is to start drafting a new treaty to reform the 27-member bloc. The launch of talks in Brussels aims to end two years of confusion after the proposed European constitution was rejected by French and Dutch voters.

After June’s summit, where EU leaders agreed on the treaty’s outlines, there is a common desire to proceed quickly.

(BBC)

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German Foreign Minister Confirms One Hostage Still Alive

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier confirmed that one of two Germans kidnapped in Afghanistan was believed to be still alive and another had died but had not been murdered.

Steinmeier was speaking after Afghanistan’s Taliban claimed the militants had killed the two Germans and five Afghan hostages, and  threatened to murder 23 South Korean captives.

  

“We can say that one of the hostages is dead,” Steinmeier told reporters after a government crisis-cell meeting Saturday evening.

 

“Nothing indicates that he was assassinated — everything suggests he died due to the conditions of detention imposed by his captors,” he said. 

 

(DW; Image: AP)

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Taleban ‘kill captured Germans’

Two Germans kidnapped near Kabul in Afghanistan this week have been killed, a spokesman for the Taleban has said. Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said one hostage was shot at 1205 local time (0735 GMT) and the other an hour later as no German troop pullout had been announced.

Afghan and German officials say they have no confirmation of the killings and are seeking evidence.

The Taleban has also threatened to kill at least 18 hostages from South Korea, captured separately on Thursday.

(BBC)

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“If You Feel a Sense of Moral Duty, You Have to Act Upon It”

Graf von Stauffenberg attempted to assassinate Hitler 63 years ago on Friday. DW-WORLD.DE spoke to his eldest son, retired Major General Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, about the plot and its significance.

On July 20, 1944, Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, a colonel in the Nazi army, took the fate of the German people into his own hands. Increasingly disillusioned with Adolf Hitler, Stauffenberg and numerous other co-conspirators within the German military plotted to assassinate the dictator and seize the reins of power. Stauffenberg smuggled an explosives-filled briefcase into a meeting at Hitler’s hideaway. Miraculously, the dictator survived the blast and Stauffenberg and others involved in the plot were executed.

 

A movie about the events of July 20, 1944, is currently being filmed in Berlin starring Hollywood actor and prominent Scientologist Tom Cruise, and it has stirred controversy. Over the years, some have raised questions about the attack itself, with debate about the motives and the political persuasion of Stauffenberg. DW-WORLD.DE talked to his eldest son about the assassination plot and its consequences for the family and Germany as a whole.

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Click here to read interview

 

EU Wary of Being Dragged Into Britain-Russia Diplomatic Row

Despite a statement saying it was “disappointed” by Russian failure to cooperate with the UK, the European Union is staying firmly on the sidelines in the escalating diplomatic row between London and Moscow.

As relations between Britain and Russia reach the lowest point since the Cold War, the European Union stands to one side, unwilling to get involved in what could turn out to be one of the most serious diplomatic spats between east and west in over a decade.

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Eventual EU statement lacks weight

A statement eventually materialized Thursday, but Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado’s assertion that the diplomatic row was “disappointing” and “a bilateral issue” between Britain and Russia hardly threw the bloc’s weight behind the Brits.

The statement by the Portuguese did however say the issue “raises important questions of common interest to EU member states,” adding that Litvinenko’s murder was “a grave and reckless crime.”

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Germany says Britain “overreacted

Germany was one of the many other EU nations which viewed the situation from a distance. Despite Prime Minister Brown’s visit in person to Berlin to press Chancellor Angela Merkel for her support, Germany remained firmly on the fence but did say that it thought Britain had “overreacted” by expelling the four Russian diplomats and freezing bilateral negotiations on visas.
 

Russia warns EU to stay out of row

Russia for its part has warned the EU to stay out of the row and Vladimir Chizhov, Russia’s EU representative in Brussels called the EU Presidency’s lukewarm statement on Wednesday “an unpleasant surprise for us.”

(DW; Image: AP) 
 

Russia expels four UK diplomats

Russia is to expel four UK diplomats in the continuing row over Moscow’s refusal to extradite the man suspected of Alexander Litvinenko’s murder.

The four diplomats must leave Russia within 10 days, and Moscow is to review visa applications for UK officials.

Foreign ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said co-operation in counter terrorism would no longer be possible.

On Monday four Russian embassy staff were expelled from the UK as part of the row over the murder in London.

Mr Kamynin also said Moscow would not apply for any UK visas for Russian officials.

(BBC; Image:AP)

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Spiraling British-Russian Diplomatic Row Could Pull in EU

Amid a growing diplomatic row that threatens to affect the European Union’s ties to Russia, Moscow said it intends to put a halt to cooperating with London on counter-terrorism and security matters.

The move, announced in Moscow by Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Gruschko on Tuesday, follows Britain’s decision to expel four Russian diplomats over Moscow’s refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, suspected of murdering Kremlin critic and British citizen Alexander Litvinenko.

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“It is apparent that the (British) sanctions are aimed at politicizing the Litvinenko affair,” he added. “This is a direct path to confrontation.”

 

EU could be pulled into fight

Gruschko also said he hoped the European Union would have “enough common sense” as to not allow itself to become an instrument in the affair.

 

But the EU is likely to be pulled into any dispute between a member state and Russia, according to Luxemburg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn.

 

“Naturally we are showing our solidarity with another EU member, but you also have to have the right to question certain steps,” Asselborn told Financial Times Deutschland, adding that he wondered if the dispute could have been settled using “silent, diplomatic channels.”

 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave her support to Brown’s decision to expel the Russians, who are rumored to be part of the embassy’s intelligence unit.

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The French Foreign Ministry allow issued a statement Tuesday calling for Moscow to “constructively answer the British request.”

 

(DW; Image: AP)

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EU Warns of Legal Action If Poland Continues With Highway

The European Commission said it would resume court action against Poland if the country goes ahead with the construction of a highway through an environmentally fragile forest. Poland said building will restart Aug. 1.

Poland announced on Tuesday that work would continue on Aug. 1 on the controversial Via Baltica highway through a section of virgin forest in the northeast Rospuda Valley, near the border with Lithuania.

However, European Commission spokeswoman on environmental affairs, Barbara Helfferich, said the EU executive would not hesitate to take Poland to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) once again to get the road work halted.

…Unique habitat The Rospuda marshlands and surrounding area are the world’s most important breeding grounds for the endangered aquatic warbler. The region is also home to rare spotted eagles, lynx and wolves.

The planned “Via Baltica” highway, however, is intended as a new, major corridor for the Baltic states meant to ease traffic and thus trade between eastern and western Europe.

To cut down on traffic flow near the town of Augustow, Polish transport officials foresee building a bypass road that would cut right through the Rospuda River valley. EU authorities consider the area to be “a unique wetland system.”

(Poland has 31 orchid species, 19 of which can be found in the Rospuda Valley).

 

(DW; Image:Piotr Malczewski)

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Spain-Portugal ‘merger’ derided

Portuguese Nobel laureate Jose Saramago’s suggestion that Portugal will one day become part of Spain has provoked controversy.

The author’s comments have been criticised by Portuguese commentators and fellow artists.

“I think we’ll end up by integrating,” Saramago told Lisbon’s Diario de Noticias newspaper.

He said he believed Portugal would become a province or autonomous region of its larger neighbour.

The author of The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis added that “Spain is likely to change its name and call itself ‘Iberia’”, but said the Portuguese would not “transform ourselves into Spaniards”.

The former Portuguese ambassador to Madrid, Antonio Martins da Cruz, was outspoken in his criticism of Saramago’s comments.

He told Diario de Noticias that Iberianism was simply not an issue today.

He said Saramago “knows about literature” but “should leave politics to the politicians and strategy to the strategists”.

Saramago, who won the Nobel prize for literature in 1998, has lived on the Spanish island of Lanzarote for the past 10 years.

He reportedly married Spanish journalist Pilar del Rio at a ceremony in her home town of Castril, near Granada, on Monday.

(BBC; Image: silencio.weblog.com.pt)