Monday Briefs: Beauty Salon Shootout!

• Two people died and one was seriously wounded in a beauty salon shootout on Kolosy tér on Friday evening. An unidentified 55-year-old man entered the unidentified salon at around 5:45, and began quarreling with his former love partner, aged 35. When the woman's sister, 37, tried to separate them, the man shot the sister, wounding her seriously, and then blew away his ex, before turning the gun on himself. The sister, who works at the salon, was operated on and is expected to make a full recovery. [fn.hu]

• The driver of a No. 103 bus suddenly dropped dead while careening down a busy street near the Lágymányosi Bridge on Saturday afternoon. According to a pathetically uninteresting brief on state newswire MTI - at least given the material involved - two passengers managed to stop the vehicle before it had a "big" accident. [mti]

• Residents of Bakonynána (Veszprém County) are aware that Mayor Miklós Kropf received a jail sentence for stealing wood, but they trust him and want him to continue his work. [népszabadság]

• A journalist from Magyar Hírlap was able to pass the security check at Parliament with a "spy bug" (poloska). The guards only look for devices that can be dangerous to public security, and poloskas are not. [hirado.hu]

• The environment will probably not be damaged considerably by a smallish cyanide spill caused by a Romanian company, Tibor Dobson, spokesman for the NGO Disaster Defense said. The pollution reached the Tisza river this morning. [mno]

• While you were sitting at home watching DVDs or otherwise pussin' out on Saturday night, we went to the Fifth Gothica Festival at the Pecsa, and it ROCKED. [To Do (Last) Weekend]

• Babies born on or after January 1st, 2006, will receive up to Ft 218,000 from the state by the time they are 18, as part of a new scheme to increase the country's savings rate. The babakötvény (earlier referred to as bébikötvény) will be introduced next year, which means every newborn will receive a savings account with Ft 40,000 from the state (not 50,000, which was what the government first talked about, and not Ft 100,000, as SZDSZ suggested). [népszava]

• There will again be a free skating rink at the parking lot in front of the Parliament this winter. The rink, where a state-organized celebration will be held at New Year's Eve, costs more than Ft 100 million. As in previous years, Szerencsejáték Rt (Gambling Rt) contributes to the expenses. [hír tv]