Tens of thousands take to Hungary's streets in latest Internet tax protest 

The unpopular tariff has sparked widespread action against a government many say is growing authoritarian

October 29, 2014 12:30PM ET

About 100,000 Hungarians rallied late into the night on Tuesday to protest a planned tax on Internet data traffic and the broader course of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government, which they see as undermining democracy and relations with the European Union.

It was by far the largest protest since Orban’s center-right government took power in 2010 and pursued policies to redefine many walks of life, drawing accusations of creeping authoritarianism.

Orban's government, which was nonetheless re-elected by a landslide this year, has imposed special taxes on the banking, retail, energy and telecommunications sectors to keep the budget deficit in check, jeopardizing profits in some parts of the economy and unnerving international investors.

The Internet data levy idea was first floated in the 2015 tax code submitted to the Central European country's parliament last week, triggering objections from Internet service providers and users who felt it was anti-democratic.

This week's protests have been organized largely over Facebook and appeared to draw mostly well-heeled professionals. Tens of thousands have marched through central Budapest for three days now, demanding the repeal of the planned tax and the ouster of Orban.

At Tuesday evening's protests, the largest yet, demonstrators held up makeshift signs that read "ERROR!" and "How many times do you want to skin us?"

Zsolt Varady, an Internet entrepreneur and founder of a now-defunct Hungarian social network iwiw.hu, told the crowd that the tax threatened to undermine Internet freedoms.

Since 2006, Varady said, "People [have been] willing to pay for [Internet] service because they knew, saw and felt that their lives were becoming better … The Internet tax threatens the further growth of the Internet as well as freedom of information."

The government had planned to tax internet data transfers at a rate of 150 forints, or about 60 cents, per gigabyte. After analysts calculated this would total more than the sector's annual revenue and an initial protest drew thousands on Sunday, Fidesz submitted a bill that capped the tax at 700 forints (just under $3) per month for individuals and 5,000 forints ($20) for companies.

As Tuesday's swelling crowds showed, the concession has not quelled Hungarians' outrage.

"I am a student, my parents are not well off, neither am I, so I work hard," said Ildiko Pirk, a 22-year-old studying nursing. "I doubt the Internet companies won't build this tax into their prices. And I have a computer, a smartphone, as does my mother and my four siblings. ... That adds up."

Protesters have also noted that the Internet was widely used to gain access to unbiased news that is not under the control of Hungary's ruling political elite.

But many protesters say the government's other moves have also bothered them, suggesting that the Internet tax has served to ignite wider grievances about perceived mismanagement of the economy and a recent dispute with the United States over alleged corruption of Hungarian public officials.

The Orban government has denied any anti-democratic agenda, saying it aimed only to get all economic sectors to share the tax burden and was tapping into a trend of telecommunications shifting away from already-taxed telephony and text messages.

The European Commission has also criticized the proposed tax, saying that that it was economically misguided because it was based on data traffic now growing rapidly around the world.

"It's part of a pattern ... of actions which have limited freedoms or sought to take rents without achieving a wider economic or social interest," said Ryan Heath, spokesman for outgoing Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes.

Al Jazeera and wire services

U.N. chief condemns planned separatist election in eastern Ukraine

U.N. chief condemns planned separatist election in eastern Ukraine 


UNITED NATIONS Wed Oct 29, 2014 1:05pm EDT 

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon speaks during the Asia Society's Game Changer Awards at United Nations headquarters in New York October 16, 2014.

CREDIT: REUTERS/LUCAS JACKSON 

(Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday condemned an election being organized by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, saying the vote would violate the country's constitution.

The Nov. 2 vote would be being held in defiance of Ukrainian national elections last Sunday in which pro-Western parties, dedicated to holding the former Soviet republic together and negotiating a settlement to the conflict, triumphed.

"The Secretary-General deplores the planned holding by armed rebel groups in eastern Ukraine of their own 'elections' on Nov. 2, in breach of the constitution and national law," Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

"These 'elections' will seriously undermine the Minsk Protocol and Memorandum, which need to be urgently implemented in full," he added. "The Secretary-General urges all to uphold these agreements and work toward a peaceful resolution of the conflict."

He said it was important to restore stability and safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

Russia, however, has said it will recognize the election results, an announcement that the Kiev government said could destroy the chance of bringing an end to the conflict.

The dispute over the rebel vote has deepened the discord in the geo-political tussle betweenRussia and the West over the future of Ukraine, going back to the overthrow by protesters of the country's Moscow-backed president in February.

Moscow supports the rebels, but it denies Ukrainian and Western accusations that its troops have taken part in fighting against government forces in a conflict that has killed more than 3,700 people.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; editing by Gunna Dickson)

Conflicts: Passenger on downed Malaysia Airlines jet in Ukraine had oxygen mask on

THE HAGUE, Netherlands –  The body of one passenger of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was found wearing an oxygen mask, Dutch prosecutors said Thursday, raising questions about how much those on board knew about their fate when the plane plunged out of the sky above Eastern Ukraine in July.

The passenger, an Australian, did not have the mask on his face, but its elastic strap was around his neck, said Wim de Bruin, a spokesman for the Dutch National Prosecutor's Office which is carrying out a criminal investigation into the air disaster.

De Bruin said Dutch forensic experts investigated the mask "for fingerprints, saliva and DNA and that did not produce any results. So it is not known how or when that mask got around the neck of the victim."

De Bruin said no other bodies recovered from the wreckage were found wearing masks. He said he did not know where in the plane the Australian victim was sitting.

All 298 passengers and crew died when the jet flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed July 17. Dutch air crash investigators said last month it was likely struck by multiple "high-energy objects from outside the aircraft," which some aviation experts say is consistent with a strike by a missile.

The head of the criminal investigation said the most likely of possible scenarios being investigated is that the Boeing 777 was shot down from the ground.

Relatives of the Australian passenger were told about the mask as soon as it was discovered, but relatives of other victims heard about it for the first time when Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans mentioned it during an interview on a late-night talk show on Wednesday.

Relatives of victims began calling investigators Thursday asking about the comments, De Bruin said.

The Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Timmermans regrets his comments.

"I have an enormous amount of sympathy for the next-of-kin," he said. "The last thing I want to do is compound their suffering in this way."

Ground operation in Syria ‘not realistic’, says Turkey

Turkey could not be expected to lead a unilateral cross-border ground operation into Syria, said Turkey’s foreign minister on Thursday.

Amid mounting international pressure on key NATO member Turkey for a military intervention against the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Ankara had no intention of sending ground troops across the border without outside help.

"It's not realistic to expect that Turkey will lead a ground operation on its own," said Cavusoglu. "We are holding talks. Once there is a common decision, Turkey will not hold back from playing its part."

The Turkish foreign minister was speaking to reporters in Ankara after holding talks with visiting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

In his remarks to the press, Stoltenberg said the question of a buffer zone between Turkey and Syria had not been discussed by NATO member countries.

Safe zone required

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said a safe zone for refugees, backed up by a no-fly zone, must be created inside Syria if Ankara is to consider military action there.

"We discussed this issue today during our meeting here," said Stoltenberg. "It has not been on the table of any NATO discussions yet and it is not an issue which is discussed in NATO," he added.

Some NATO member countries such as France have already voiced their support for a buffer zone.

Amid mounting international criticism of Turkey’s failure to intervene in the fight for the Kurdish-dominated Syrian border town the anti-IS, Stoltenberg appeared to be wary of adding to the public pressure, saying that IS jihadists posed "a great threat for the Iraqi people, the Syrian people and the region in general."

"It's important to stand in solidarity," he added, saying NATO welcomed the Turkish parliament's vote last week that gave authorisation for military action.

"NATO stands ready to support all allies in facing threats," he said.

IS group controls ‘a third’ of Kobane

Stoltenberg’s visit to Turkey came as a Syrian activist group on Thursday said IS militants now control a third of the symbolic Kurdish town of Kobane.

The coalition carried out two fresh strikes on the town early Thursday, according to the AFP, as it continued a flurry of bombing raids on IS positions in and around the town.

Nearly 20 coalition bombing raids have hit near Kobane since Tuesday, but Washington has said air strikes alone would not be enough to save it.

Fierce street battles have been raging in Kobane since the jihadists breached its defences earlier this week.

IS fighters pulled out of some areas on Wednesday but have since renewed their offensive and seized more ground, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Now ISIS clashes spread across Europe: Riot police separate hundreds of Kurds and Islamist supporters in Germany after at least nine are killed in protests in Turkey

• Kurdish protesters confronted Salafist Muslims outside a mosque 
• Both sides came armed with iron bars, machetes and sharp objects 
• Police say 14 people were injured before they could quell disturbance  
• Tear gas fired in Ankara and Istanbul after demonstrations erupt there 
• Activists are demanding more support for Kurdish fighters in Kobane
• Protests spread across Europe and saw demos in Germany and France

By SARA MALM and DAMIEN GAYLE FOR MAILONLINE and ASSOCIATED PRESS

PUBLISHED: 04:53 EST, 8 October 2014 | UPDATED: 09:03 EST, 8 October 2014

Ethnic Kurds clashed overnight with alleged members of a hardline Islamist movement in Hamburg last night, as ISIS clashes spread far from Syria.

Police in the northern German city say 14 people were injured overnight in the violence involving hundreds of demonstrators before riot police were able to quell the disturbance.

Police spokesman Karina Sadowsky said this morning that fighting began after hundreds of Kurds held a protest against the Islamic State group.

Scroll down for video 

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Violent: Police walk through the mist of a water cannon during clashes in Hamburg, northern Germany, between Kurdish protesters and alleged Islamists after demonstrations outside a mosque turned violent

Pro-ISIS radicals attack Kurds in Hamburg with MACHETES

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Crackdown: Police forces march in front of water cannons as they move in to stop the clashes in Hamburg

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Police confront protesting Kurds: Police in the northern German city say 14 people were injured overnight in the violence involving hundreds of demonstrators wielding machetes and iron bars

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Police surround a trio giving attention to an injured protester: Police spokeswoman Karina Sadowsky said this morning that fighting began after hundreds of Kurds held a protest against the Islamic State group

Similar protests took place throughout Europe on Tuesday by Kurds seeking to draw attention to Islamic State's onslaught against the Kurdish town of Kobani in northern Syria.

The violence erupted after a standoff between the protesters, rumoured online to be supporters of the PKK, and members of a nearby mosque associated with the Salafist movement - a strict interpretation of Islam backed and funded by the Saudi regime.

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Local media reported that some demonstrators came armed with iron bars and machetes. Sadowsky says police used water cannons to break up the protest, and arrested 22 people. 

The Local reports that 400 Kurds gathered near the Al-Nour mosque after an earlier demonstration against the violence in Iraq and Syria. They were met by about 400 Salafi Muslims, according to police who said members of both groups came armed with metal bars, machetes and other sharp objects.

Fighting broke out at about 11pm, prompting police to block all roads and try to drive vehicles between the two groups. After midnight police moved in with water cannon, staying on the streets in riot gear until the early hours of the morning.

It's not the first inter-ethnic violence in Germany related to the current Middle East crisis. On Monday evening six people were hurt in Celle, Lower Saxony, after a brawl broke out between about 30 Muslims and 60 Yazidi Kurds. Around 60,000 Yazidis live in Germany.

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Ready to fight: Kurdish protesters brandish iron bars as they confront Muslims outside the Al-Nour mosque

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Defending the mosque: Youths stand in front of the Al-Nour mosque, where the confrontation between Kurds and what police said were Salafist Muslims took place

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Some 400 Kurds were said to have gathered at the mosque after an earlier demonstration, where they were met by an equal number of 'Salafi' Muslims. Both sides came armed with iron bars and machetes, police said

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Nasty: A policewoman takes away weapons found after the fighting, while blood soaked clothes lie on the floor

Last night's violence in Germany came as at least nine Kurdish demonstrators were killed by police in Turkey as demonstrations against the government's failure to help Syrian Kurds fighting Isis just across the border turned violent.

Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party had called for citizens to protest the assault on Kobane, where the situation turned 'extremely critical' overnight.

Officers used tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish eastern and south-eastern provinces, as well as the capital Ankara and in Istanbul, where cars were set on fire and demonstrators threw rocks and fireworks at police.

There were rumours that in some areas police opened fire on demonstrators.  

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Burning streets: Kurdish protesters are pictured in a street in the Turkish city of Diyarbakir as the anti-ISIS demonstrations across Turkey on Tuesday continued into the night

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Explosions: Protesters throw fireworks at riot police on the streets of Istanbul on Tuesday evening

Five people were killed in Diyarbakir, the largest Kurdish city in the south-east, which saw clashes between protesters and police.

A 25-year-old man died in Varto, a town in the eastern province of Mus, and at least half a dozen people were wounded there in clashes between police and protesters, local media reported.

Two people died in south-eastern Siirt province, the governor was quoted as saying by CNN Turk Television, and another died in neighbouring Batman. 

Curfews were imposed in five predominantly Kurdish south-eastern provinces after the protests, in which shops and banks were damaged.

Interior Minister Efkan Ala called for an end to the protests. 'Violence is not the solution. Violence triggers reprisals. This irrational attitude should come to an end immediately,' he told reporters. 

Thousands of Kurds protest in Turkey over besieged Syrian town

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City on fire: A bus burned by Kurdish protesters is pictured at the Gaziosmanpasa district in Istanbul

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Fighting back: Demonstrator flee as police use tear gas and water cannons in Istanbul

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Violence: Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party had called for democratic action against the assault on Kobane by ISIS

Some European countries are arming the Kurds, and the American-led coalition is carrying out airstrikes against the Islamic extremists, but protesters say it is not enough.

Tensions are especially high in Turkey, where Kurds have fought a three-decade-long battle for autonomy and where Syria's violence has taken an especially heavy toll.

Protests were reported in cities across Turkey on Tuesday, after ISIS fighters backed by tanks and artillery engaged in heavy street battles in Kobane.

Police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse demonstrators in Istanbul and in the desert town of Kucuk Kenderciler, near Kobane on the Turkish side of the border. 

One person in Istanbul was hospitalized after being hit in the head by a gas canister, Dogan reported.

Some protesters shouted 'Murderer ISIS!' and accused Turkey's government of collaborating with the Islamic militants.

Authorities declared a curfew in six towns in the southeastern province of Mardin, the Anadolu Agency reported. 

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Tension in Turkey: Protesters are seen hurling rocks and stones at police in Ankara, the capital of Turkey 

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Supporting the Kurds:  Protests were held across Turkey in support for the Kurdish fighters in Kobane

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Several protesters in Ankara (pictured) and Istanbul covered their faces with scarves or gas masks 

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Although several calm protests were held across Europe on Tuesday, several cities in Turkey saw violence on the streets and clashes between demonstrators and riot police

Hundreds of thousands of Kurds live elsewhere in Europe, and mobilized quickly via social networks to stage protests after the advance on Kobane. Some European Kurds have gone to the Mideast recently to join Kurdish forces. 

In Brussels on Tuesday, about 50 protesters smashed a glass door and pushed past police to get into the European Parliament. 

Once inside, some protesters were received by Parliament President Martin Schulz, who promised to discuss the Kurds' plight with NATO and EU leaders.

In Germany, home to Western Europe's largest Kurdish population, about 600 people demonstrated in Berlin on Tuesday, according to police. Austria, too, saw protests.

Kurds peacefully occupied the Dutch Parliament for several hours Monday night, and met Tuesday with legislators to press for more Dutch action against the insurgents, according to local media.

The Netherlands has sent six F-16 fighter jets to conduct airstrikes against Islamic State in Iraq, but says it does not see a mandate for striking in Syria.

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Protesters throw stones at a police vehicle in Ankara as officers attempt to disperse the crowd

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Action: Turkish riot police detain protesters after using tear gas to disperse people in Ankara

France, too, is launching airstrikes on Islamic State positions in Iraq but not in Syria, wary of implications on international efforts against President Bashar Assad.

‘We don't understand why France is acting in Kurdistan in Iraq and not Kurdistan in Syria,’ said Fidan Unlubayir of the Federation of Kurdish Associations of France.

Kurds protested overnight at the French Parliament and plan another protest Tuesday.

Kurds also staged impromptu protests against the Islamic State fighters in Helsinki, Oslo and Stockholm.

On Monday, protesters at the U.S. Embassy in Cyprus urged the international coalition to provide heavy weaponry to Kurdish fighters and forge a military cooperation pact with the Kurdish group YPG.