News Briefs: The Flu Vaccine/Watered-Down Coke Challenge

• Two members of leading opposition group Fidesz brought a skeleton wearing a T-shirt that said "Punks Not Dead - and what about Hungarian culture?" to a meeting with the cultural minister yesterday. Members of MSZP stormed out in a huff and returned only after the skeleton was removed from the room. [hirado.hu]

• The avian flu vaccine currently available in Hungary is not able to protect people from the virus if it starts spreading from human to human; According to György Berencsi, head virologist of the National Epidemiology Center, the European Union "made the whole thing up" to ensure that factories "practice" making vaccine before the real plague actually starts. [hvg.hu]

• A pair of new parents took the wrong baby home from a Debrecen hospital on Monday. As with a similar case earlier this year, a boy was taken from the hospital instead of a girl. What caused the mix-up this time was that the parents failed to check the baby's bracelet before they took him with them. The bracelets for girls are pink while the ones for boys are blue, and their names are printed on them as well. Poor kid. [ma.hu]

• Every fifth vendor of fountain soda in Hungary sells watered-down pop, the Consumer Protection Inspectorate has reported. [fn.hu]

• The turul bird statue in District XII will be inaugurated on Saturday, even though the Budapest government hasn't given permission for it. [radio.hu]

• Ibolya Dávid, leader of the center-right Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF), sent an open letter to leaders of the largest parties - István Hiller (MSZP), Gábor Kuncze (SZDSZ) and Viktor Orbán (Fidesz) - inviting them to a television debate in which each can elaborate on their respective parties' plans for replacing the forint with the euro. [uno.hu]

• Twice as many women and young people are among the homeless as in recent years. The relevant ministry wants to make cheap rental apartments available instead of building more homeless shelters. [népszabadság, origo.hu]