Hungary

Karoly Grosz, the first Communist leader of Hungary to visit the White House, told President Reagan yesterday that his country would reorganize its economy to permit more private businesses, and he promised greater political freedoms for Hungarians. Grosz, a reformist leader who became prime minister last year and Communist Party chief in May, met with Reagan and other top administration officials for two hours. He said Hungary "will reorganize its economy" to expand the private sector and allow more foreign investment.

BUDAPEST, Hungary - Hungary's prime minister launched a scathing attack on the European Union on Thursday, accusing it of colonialist behavior, disrespecting his country's sovereignty and meddling in its domestic affairs. The EU has voiced concerns about legislation passed by Viktor Orban's Fidesz party, which is seen limiting democratic principles such as the freedom of the press and the independence of the judiciary and the central bank. Brussels is also on the verge of punishing Hungary for its excessive budget deficit.

Now that the Soviet Union has reversed history by abandoning Afghanistan, is it possible that another communist taboo may soon be scrapped? Could the Kremlin actually allow a communist ally to introduce a multiparty system? Hungary, linked in Western minds with the brutal Soviet invasion of 1956, may be the first East bloc country to test the limits of Moscow's political tolerance. This week the communist leadership in Budapest backed the creation of non-communist political parties, while still leaving unclear exactly how such a system will work.

BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Union stepped up the pressure Wednesday against Hungary, saying its fiscal policies were unsustainable and threatening legal action over a new constitution that some fear could push the country back into authoritarianism. The warnings escalated the standoff between Hungary's government and the EU and underlined the difficulty Budapest will face in negotiating a rescue package from the EU and the International Monetary Fund. Hungary, which is in the 27-nation EU but uses its own currency, the forint, has been sharply criticized for a new constitution that the EU fears hurts the independence of the country's judges, its central bank, and its data protection agency.

Hungary was accepted into the European Union on May 1, ending more than half a century of economic isolation. Its postwar economy had been limited by a currency that was not convertible to dollars. The country had to trade mainly with other economically repressed Eastern European nations under the control of the Soviet Union. With the entry to the European Union, Hungary will eventually trade in euros, but the National Bank of Hungary has celebrated the event by issuing new gold and silver commemorative forint coins.

Collectors of coins from Eastern Europe were frustrated for years by the Iron Curtain. The coins were just not available here, or required such intricate negotiations through third and fourth parties that collecting took on the air of international intrigue. In the post-Iron Curtain world, one of those countries, Hungary, has moved to make it easier for collectors by opening an office in New Jersey to market its coins. The establishment of the U.S. coin office follows a decision last year by the Republic of Hungary to strike coins in new weights, sizes and metals to replace those of communist Hungary, which went out of business in 1989.

For nearly 20 years, the Huntingdon Trio has admirably devoted itself to performing new and unknown music. During that time the group has also commissioned new works, adding more than 40 new pieces to the chamber music repertoire. One of these works, the Philadelphians say, was written for them after a composer heard the group on tour in Budapest last year and arrived in the mail soon after they returned. The Divertimento by Ignac Meresz was played Sunday night by the Trio at the Ethical Society on Rittenhouse Square.

The telephones were jangling at Koranyi Hospital's suicide hot-line center, where an overworked team of volunteers talked soothingly to despondent callers. In a nearby room, therapist Erzsebet Hasz met with a small group of suicidal patients, using poems, novels and paintings as a point of discussion. "When a poet is in a bad way, he often writes something that is an affirmation of life," she explained. A 25-bed ward in the hospital was filled with Hungarians whom the hot line and therapy sessions had been unable to reach.

If a group of people in Hungary were playing Trivial Pursuit, some of them might be able to answer the following questions: Where is the Cherry Hill Library? What was the library's membership in 1984? How many books did the library lend in 1984? Where are the restrooms located? Impossible? Not if those people read the May issue of the Hungarian magazine Konyvtaros - or "Librarian. " Featured in it is an article titled "I Was a Reader in an American Library," by Kellner Bela.

The path to a U.S. record in the men's 200-meter breast stroke began with a chance encounter at a Rockville, Md., pool two years ago. Mike Barrowman was a frustrated 17-year-old swimmer. Joszef Nagy was an unemployed swimming coach in a strange country, where he didn't speak the language and where having coached the Hungarian national team didn't mean much. Last night, Barrowman won the 200 breast stroke at the U.S. Long Course National Championships and Olympic trials by matching the American record of 2 minutes, 13.74 seconds he had set in the morning preliminaries.

Anti-Hezbollah protester slain BEIRUT, Lebanon - A Lebanese demonstrator was shot dead outside the Iranian Embassy in Beirut on Sunday when clashes erupted over the Shiite extremist group Hezbollah's widening involvement in the neighboring civil war in Syria. Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, has riled tensions by sending fighters to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The official Lebanese new agency said Hisham Salman died after being shot in front of the embassy. Local reports said Salman was a member of Intima, an opposition group opposed to Hezbollah's interference in Syria.

BUDAPEST, Hungary - Right-wing extremists shout Nazi salutes and attack a man they believe is Jewish. Black-booted militants frighten aging Holocaust survivors. Writings of authors linked to a pro-Nazi regime are recommended reading for schoolchildren. Hungary is seeing a rise in anti-Semitism, which the prime minister is now vowing to fight. Prime Minister Viktor Orban told a gathering of Jewish representatives Sunday that anti-Semitism is "unacceptable and intolerable. " The meeting of the World Jewish Congress is being held in Budapest to draw attention to a rise in anti-Semitism in this Eastern European country.

My grandmother Anna Altmayer came to America in 1914. She was 17 years old. She traveled with her father, leaving her mother and three younger brothers back in Hercegfalva, a small farm village in Hungary. Her father found her a position as a maid and cook in Ridgewood, N.J., and then sailed back home. The plan was for her to save up enough money to bring the others over. But that never happened. World War I broke out within a few months, making travel close to impossible. Why they never came over after the war, I don't know.

BUDAPEST, Hungary - Thousands attended an anti-Nazi rally Sunday in Hungary organized by Jewish and civic groups to protest a far-right lawmaker's call to screen Jews for national security risks. The rally was unusual because politicians from both the government and opposition parties shared a stage outside parliament. Marton Gyongyosi of the far-right Jobbik party said Monday in the legislature that it was time "to assess . . . how many people of Jewish origin there are here, and especially in the Hungarian parliament and the Hungarian government, who represent a certain national security risk.

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LONDON - Maggie Steffens made sure her first touch of the ball at the Olympics counted. And nearly every other one after that, too. In her Olympic debut, the 19-year-old Californian scored seven goals - six in the first half alone - and the U.S. women's water polo team survived a pesky Hungarian squad to win its opening match Monday in the London Games, 14-13. "It's awesome. My heartbeat is still pounding. I'm walking through here and just kind of taking a deep breath and letting it sink in," Steffens said.

Paul L. Gotzy, 88, who survived communist imprisonment both in the Soviet Union and in Hungary and who was honored by a later Hungarian government, died of cancer on Friday, April 27, at his home in Lansdale. Mr. Gotzy was the owner and operator of Palco Precision Machine & Tool Co. from 1961 to 2007 and a founder in 1961 of a Hungarian American sports club in Hereford, Berks County. In 1995, son-in-law Paul Abraham said in a Wednesday interview, the Hungarian government honored Mr. Gotzy's World War II service by naming him a retired lieutenant colonel and giving him a knighthood.

Zoltan Kovacs is a big, strapping man — 6-foot-4, 230 pounds — with a body fit for his work. He is a stonemason. The other day, I watched him and a couple of helpers wrestle a 400-pound slab of rock into position atop a 16-foot chimney he rebuilt on a 19th-century house in Haverford. Kovacs, 38, came to the United States from Hungary when he was 21. As a teenager, he was a slip of a lad. He was a distance runner who competed in marathons and triathlons. With his lanky body and long limbs, he was also an excellent swimmer.

BUDAPEST, Hungary - Hungary's prime minister launched a scathing attack on the European Union on Thursday, accusing it of colonialist behavior, disrespecting his country's sovereignty and meddling in its domestic affairs. The EU has voiced concerns about legislation passed by Viktor Orban's Fidesz party, which is seen limiting democratic principles such as the freedom of the press and the independence of the judiciary and the central bank. Brussels is also on the verge of punishing Hungary for its excessive budget deficit.

Istvan Csurka, 77, a Hungarian anti-Soviet dissident playwright and later far-right nationalist politician who was criticized at home and abroad for his anti-Semitic articles, died Saturday in Budapest, his family announced. He had been hospitalized in recent weeks with an undisclosed illness. Often compared to France's xenophobic National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, Mr. Csurka opposed Hungary's membership in NATO and the European Union, but his political activities dwindled after a stinging defeat in the 2006 elections.