The Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs follows with great concern the situation in the Middle East, resulting in the Gaza Strip rocket attacks on Israel, which responded militarily to protect its population, the Ministry said in a statement.

The number of foreigners living in Hungary for a longer period of time has increased by nearly 50%, from 142,000 to 205,000, since Hungary joined the European Union in 2004, the Hungarian business weekly HVG published this Thursday.

A Hungarian court sentenced Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Radimir Cacic to one year and ten months in prison on Wednesday. Cacic, 62, received the sentence in absentia for causing a fatal road accident in which two people died in Hungary in 2010.

Fighter aircraft of the Hungarian air force will be in charge of policing the airspace of Slovenia and the Baltic states under a NATO agreement, Defense Minister Csaba Hende said on Tuesday. These NATO countries do not have an air force of their own.

Hungary offers a total of 87 investment opportunities in various sectors including 35 in tourism, 17 in renewable energy, 15 in IT and telecommunications to Arab investors at the 1st Arab Hungarian Economic Forum held in Budapest November 12-13.

The Japan Foundation, Budapest encourages cultural collaboration between Hungary and Japan by organizing programs and making contributions to various festivals and exhibitions in the fields of film, dance, theater, literature and photography.

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny is on a working visit to Hungary as part of traveling the member states of the European Union on the occasion that Ireland is due to take over the rotating Presidency of the EU as of January 1, 2013.

In the First District of the State of Maryland, incumbent Andy Harris has been re-elected to the United States House of Representatives. He is the only member of Hungarian origin the U.S. Congress, part of the Republican majority.

The European Court of Justice has ruled that the radical lowering of the retirement age for Hungarian judges constitutes unjustified discrimination on grounds of age. The Hungarian Constitutional Court already deemed this law unconstitutional in July this year.

The President of the Hungary-Japan Economic Club, Sándor Kiss, has been involved in bilateral relations for three decades. In the Japanese Focusof the a recent issue of Diplomacy & Trade, he talked about the past and present of these relations.

The Houston's International Quilt Festival in Texas features – among others – the exquisite artistry of the Hungarian quilts, a 16-piece exhibit of Hungarian blue-dyed fabrics and folk-art motifs in the first days of November in the George R. Brown Convention Center.

In agreement with the analyst consensus, the government appointed rate-setters of National Bank of Hungary continued the easing cycle with another 25 basis point rate cut this week, lowering the benchmark interest rate to 6.25%.

Hungarian Parliament has approved new legislation to terminate the monopoly of national service provider Magyar Posta. The move removes the last obstacle in the way of opening the market in its entirety to privately owned companies.

A recent issue of Diplomacy & Trade carried an interview with the Japanese Ambassador to Hungary, Tetsuo Ito who looked at the various aspects of relations between the two countries. He has since left Hungary with his term expiring here.

Just over a week before the U.S. presidential elections, Tamás Magyarics, a Hungarian expert of international relations analyzes the prospects for Diplomacy & Trade online, highlighting some aspects that could be decisive as far as the outcome is concerned.