Mid-Day Reality Check: Spielberg Helicopter in Death Fireball!

Okay, we're back, and boy oh boy are we behind in the news. So let's just cut out the small talk and get to it:

• Fears of a strike action by workers at Budapest's Ferihegy airport ended after the government bought off the staff with a big juicy new contract. [reuters]

• Steven Spielberg blew up a helicopter at the Tököl airport over the weekend, as part of the ongoing filming of his newest movie. "Even cell phones [were] taken from people to make sure nobody [took] photos of the secret work," an extra told Blikk. [blikk]

• At least ten people were injured when a tractor-trailer ran into a bus waiting at a red light at the intersection of Nagykőrösi út and Határ út on Monday morning. Several passengers fell on a six-year-old child during the melee, and the truck pushed the bus into other waiting vehicles, damaging two more cars. [ma.hu]

• The government announced it would cut gas taxes a smidge, and the country's leading oil company said it would cut pump prices by a pinch in response. [portfolio.hu]

• A flower shop owned by a representative of the local government in the western town of Gárdony was set ablaze early Monday morning. The owner of the shop said the crime might be explained by a conflict between them and certain "interest groups." [hvg.hu]

• Several horses went "berserk" at a gulyás festival in Szolnok over the weekend. The animals kicked over a motorcyclist and ran into a car before they were calmed down. [ma.hu]

• Hungarian diplomats caused a sort-of-stir when they walked out of a speech by the former sort-of-dictator of Malaysia, after he said nasty things about the west. [nst.com]

• Sixty surveillance cameras will start operating in District XIV next summer; half of them in the Városliget (City Park) and the rest at the "most critical points" in the surrounding neighborhood of Zugló. Zugló Assistant Mayor Zoltán Rozgonyi said he believes that, as a result, Városliget will become the first public park in Budapest that is relatively safe at night. [nol.hu]

• The city has run out of funds for renovating the műjégpálya, the skating rink in the Városliget, and is considering leasing it out to someone who can spend Ft 5 billion to finish the job. [mno.hu]

• On Monday, the opposition-led National Consultation Board picked the winners of 71 prizes from among those who had filled in and sent back their questionnaires on how the country can be better run. The winners' names won't be published until October 8th, but it is known that the winner of the main prize, a VW Polo First, is from Miskolc. [vg.hu]

• Also on Monday, the body of a homeless man was found among the ruins of a building that had been demolished on Vöcsök utca (District XI). The workers had thought the cellar of the building was empty when they tore it down. [hvg.hu]