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Now here’s something that doesn’t happen every day: a SWAT team raided the Budapest set of Marc Forster’s big-budget zombie pic World War Z earlier today and seized a number of weapons that were being used in the film. Police confiscated 85 fully-functional weapons (read: not prop guns) from a warehouse that was being used by the production. Most of the weapons were of the automatic, military-style assault variety which is a very big no-no to transport internationally without authorization. Hit the jump for the full story, including star Brad Pitt’s reaction. Apparently the paperwork for the guns claimed that...

According to reports from the Associated Press, Budapest's mayor says Elvis Presley will be declared a posthumous honorary citizen of Hungary's capital, and a city landmark will be named after him. Mayor Istvan Tarlos says that Elvis will be commemorated because of his support for Hungary in the wake of the short-lived, anti-Soviet revolution of October 1956. On the city's website, visitors can pick one of 12 locations to be renamed after Elvis, including street crossings and a site at the foot of Margaret Bridge, which spans the Danube River. Voting ends on March 15. During Elvis' last appearance on...

The No. 3 reactor block of the embattled Kola Nuclear Power Plant was shut down today by its automatic switch off in what is a seeming series of more and more incidents at the Kola, and well as other Russian NPPs. In a release on Kola NPP’s website, operators said that, “at 1:38 am on September 28, the automatic protection switch of the No. 3 reactor block shut the unit down as a result of a malfunction in one of the elements in the system responsible for pressure control in the first compartment. The reason for the malfunction is being...

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says he hopes a series of arrests over an alleged spy ring in the US will not harm US-Russian relations. Mr Putin told former US President Bill Clinton in Moscow that US police had "let themselves go" and were putting people in prison. The FBI claims the spy ring had been operating for more than a decade Ten people have been arrested in the US and one in Cyprus after an FBI inquiry. The Russian foreign ministry has said the US allegations are baseless and a throwback to the Cold War. The 10 people arrested...

One of the earliest villas in Budapest is being excavated at Bécsi út 262 (District III), reports the Budapest History Museum. The site is of special importance, as it fits well into the line of villas previously found in the area, providing more information on the location and extension of villa farms around Aquincum, wrote Krisztián Anderkó, the archaeologist leading the excavations, on the museum's website. Ruins of the Roman building complex were discovered following several months of excavation work at a plot destined to become a hypermarket. The Office of Cultural Heritage had ordered the excavation to be carried...

Charlize Theron has referred to the Turkish city of Istanbul as Budapest three times in an interview about her "backpacking" adventures around the world. Theron, an Oscar winner known for taking on tough roles, described buying Turkish carpets in a bazaar and attending the Istanbul International Film Festival in "Budapest", the Daily Mail reports.

Fifty years on, revolution still divides Hungary By David Chance and Gergely Szakacs Fri Oct 20, 7:41 AM ET Freedom fighters sit on top of a tank with a revolutionary flag in Budapest at the time of the uprising against the Soviet-supported Hungarian communist regime in 1956. Hungary will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1956 uprising on October 23. The picture was taken in the period between October 23 and November 4, 1956. (Laszlo Almasi/Reuters) BUDAPEST (Reuters) - The diary of Gyula Csics for October 23, 1956, starts with a 12-year-old boy tending his grandfathers' graves and ends with...

For Péter Zwack, the prominent Hungarian businessman and descendant of a famous liquor-producer family, there is no doubt that Ronald Reagan and his foreign policy changed his whole life. “If Reagan had not been in the White House, the Iron Curtain would never have fallen—and I never would have come back to Hungary and never would have served as the first ambassador of the democratic Hungary to Washington,” said Zwack, 79, during the September 22 unveiling ceremony of Ronald Reagan's bust in Budapest City Park. Zwack's family fled to America in 1948 after the Communist Party came to power in...

OTTÓ GYEPES still remembers when corpses rather than protest posters were dangling from the lampposts of Budapest. As Hungary’s “goulash revolt” entered its fifth day yesterday and bandana-wearing youths prepared for another night of arson, the country was trying to break free from its memories of the incomparably more brutal suppression of a revolution 50 years ago.Hungary is in the grip of a kind of exorcism rather than a mere power struggle. “There were terrible scenes then,” said Mr Gyepes, who was a 24-year-old lorry driver when the Hungarians took to the streets against communism in 1956. “There were burnt-out...

Adding spice to the scandal, Gyurcsany's comments were full of crude remarks and called into doubt the abilities of some of Hungary's most respected economic experts.A leaked recording that caught Hungary's prime minister admitting the government had lied about the economy - keeping it afloat through "tricks'' and relying on "divine providence'' - has prompted protests outside parliament and calls for his resignation. The tape was made at a closed-door meeting in late May, weeks after Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany's government became the first in post-communist Hungary to win re-election. It seemed to confirm the worst accusations levelled at...

Two-second penalties for both Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher set up a thrilling qualifying session for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday afternoon. With the two key championship contenders eliminated before the top-ten shootout, the honours for pole position fell right at the very end to McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen, whose last-gasp lap of 1m 19.599s came just as Felipe Massa looked to have bagged the first Formula One pole of his career. Also, Hungarian Grand Prix stewards have cancelled American Scott Speed’s three fastest qualifying times as punishment for impeding another driver during Saturday’s session. The move means the Toro...

If Hungarian voters have their way then Budapest could be the home for the first bridge in the world to be named after Chuck Norris, the high-kicking star of countless action movies. The Ministry of Economy and Transport could well be kicking itself after the star become an early front runner in an online poll organised by the ministry to name a new bridge across the Danube. Almost 9000 people have voted for the "Chuck Norris Bridge". The name was suggested by somebody who said that it would be a good idea because "there is no such bridge in the...

After being in Vienna for the EU-US summit for talks ranging from the Iran nuclear standoff to ways of reducing the West's foreign energy dependence, President and Mrs. Bush arrived in Budapest for a brief visit. The Bush's and SoS Rice listened to the Vienna Boys' Choir, among other cultural activities. President and Mrs. Bush participated in a roundtable with foreign students in Vienna.

President George W Bush is well aware that he will face more criticism than praise when he visits Europe next week. US media, which are attaching little importance to the US-EU summit in Vienna and Bush's subsequent trip to Budapest, has noted the announcement of demonstrations planned in Vienna along with the attacks from controversial Austrian politician Joerg Haider. Haider, governor of Carinthia Province, has termed Bush a 'war criminal.' This is unlikely to bother the president. The three-day trip is intended as a warm-up for talks in July with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Germany, a meeting with Russian...

02 March 2006, 12:57 Hungarian government to finance the restoration of a Russian cathedral in Budapest Moscow, March 2, Interfax - In a friendly gesture in response to the return of the Sarospatak Library to Hungary, the Hungarian government will finance the restoration of the Cathedral of the Dormition in Budapest, the official web-site of the Russian Orthodox Church has reported on Thursday. This was mentioned yesterday in a talk between Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria and Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany when Bishop Hilarion thanked the prime minister for this decision made by the Hungarian government on the...

Budapest to wipe out dog waste Wed Aug 24, 2005 11:14 AM BST BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary's capital is launching a 200-million-forint (500.000 pounds) campaign to rid itself of hundreds of tonnes of dog waste which land on the city's sidewalks and parks each year, the daily Nepszabadsag reported. City officials estimate that Budapest's 400,000 dogs produce around 14,600 tonnes of dog waste each year, more than the weight of the Eiffel Tower and the London Eye combined, creating a health hazard and a public nuisance. The city will spend the money on public awareness television advertisements, hundreds of dog...

Budapest — Kimi Raikkonen blew away the field Sunday at the Hungarian Grand Prix, winning by 35.5 seconds for his fourth victory of the season. Pole-sitter Michael Schumacher finished a distant second, with his brother, Ralf Schumacher, taking third. Raikkonen's sixth career victory gave him 61 points this season, second to Formula One points leader Fernando Alonso. Alonso finished out of the points, but still holds a commanding lead with 87 points.

On Friday, July 1, in Budapest, Hungary, the city council approved placing a monument of former President Reagan in the capital city park. It is the first time a former Soviet bloc elected government has voted to erect a monument in honor of the President for his role in ending the Cold War and freeing Eastern Europe from Communist oppression. Népszabadság, Hungary's largest national newspaper (and the former Communist Party mouthpiece), reported that the support for the monument crossed all party lines, a rarity in Hungarian politics

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) - The city council will vote this month on a plan to erect a bust of former President Ronald Reagan in a park, officials said Monday. A small center-right party, the Hungarian Democratic Forum, proposed the idea for putting a bust of Reagan near an existing statue of George Washington in City Park, a popular recreation site in the capital. Council members are to vote June 30 on the plan, which was supported by the mayor and his administration. ``Although he never visited Hungary, Ronald Reagan was the American president who most contributed to the democratic changes...

The director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation says the agency is permanently stationing agents in Hungary in an effort to combat organized crime and terrorism in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Robert Mueller traveled to Budapest to meet Hungarian politicians and to participate in the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the International Law Enforcement Academy. Director Mueller says FBI agents and Hungarian national police have been participating in a joint task force to combat organized crime and terrorism. Mr. Mueller says the task force has been "so successful" since it began five...

Diplomats Honored For Dissent Envoys Challenged Bush Foreign Policy By Peter Slevin Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, June 28, 2004; Page A19 Budapest is a long way from Baghdad, but in May 2003, a U.S. Foreign Service officer in the Hungarian capital became convinced that American policy in Iraq was going awry. And he spoke up. In a cable routed through the State Department's "dissent channel," Keith W. Mines argued a case -- long rejected by the White House -- that the United Nations should be given control over Iraq's political transition. "There is no value in imposing an American...

Budapest - The city of Budapest has gotten rid of one of its most cumbersome honorary citizens - Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The city's 54-strong municipal council voted unanimously late Thursday to wipe the late dictator's name off its list of honorary citizens, mayoral spokesperson Balazs Endrenyi told AFP. He said the City Hall found a legal way to deal with the issue and submitted it to a vote. "Stalin committed horrible crimes against humanity, against Europe, Hungary, the Hungarian people as well as Budapest and its citizens, and as such he does not deserve to be one of its...

The next time anyone tries to ply the line that Arabs may be anti-Israeli but in no way anti-Jewish, remember Budapest. Remember that 60 years after Hungarian Jewry was led to a systematic, industrialized death at the very end of WW II, when all was effectively already lost for the Third Reich, Arab terrorists sought to blow up the museum belatedly put up to document the colossal crime the world did nothing about. There can be no earthly reason for seeking to destroy the minimal memorial than a deep, unabated, all-encompassing hatred for Jews - alive or dead - and...

BUDAPEST : Hungarian authorities foiled an assassination attempt against visiting Israeli President Moshe Katsav. Three people of Arab origin had been arrested in connection with the bomb plot, local radio station Inforadio reported on Tuesday, quoting intelligence sources. Hungarian police had learned of a planned terror attack during Katzav's visit, national police spokesman Lajos Nemeth told AFP but would not confirm or deny that the Israeli head of state was the target. "Police in Budapest took measures based on the suspicion of a terrorist attack," Nemeth said. "House searches, interrogations, detentions are under way." There was no official confirmation,...

Toogood Reports [Tuesday, April 8, 2003; 12:01 a.m. EST]URL: http://ToogoodReports.com/ It will be years before the whole story of the taking of Baghdad comes out. Indeed, according to the Iraqi information minister, "There is no any existence of American solders in Baghdad," so maybe we're not even going to take the city. After all, a few million Americans — most notably staffers at the New York Times — prefer to believe Saddam's people over our own. Some people may believe the war footage we are seeing on TV 24/7 was shot by the U.S. Information Ministry, in India or New...