Number of cyclists tripled in Central Budapest in three years

The number of cyclists have tripled in three years, according to a bicycle traffic counting device installed in central Budapest's Museum Avenue, the Hungarian Cyclists' Club said on Friday.

The device installed with the help of donations from the community showed a total of 583,594 cyclists passing in the cycle lane in 2013, around three times as many as three years earlier, the club said. The daily record was broken several times last year, exceeding 3,000 in April and then 4,000 in June.

The first automatic cyclist traffic counting device in Hungary was installed in the summer of 2010 thanks to the help of the Critical Mass community, the Hungarian Cyclists' Club and private donations. A total of 1.275 million forints were collected for the project, the statement said.

Opposition leaders agree on joint list for general election

The list is topped by Socialist leader Attila Mesterhazy, who is the left alliance's candidate for prime minister.

Mesterhazy is followed by E-PM leader Gordon Bajnai and Democratic Coalition (DK) leader Ferenc Gyurcsany as third on the list.
Liberal Party leader Gabor Fodor will be entered at fourth place and E-PM co-leader and co-leader of the Dialogue for Hungary (PM) Timea Szabo at fifth place on the joint list of the Socialists, E-PM, DK and Liberals.
The next ten places will be occupied by Socialist politicians. The E-PM will have the 16th and 36th places on the joint list and five additional places between the 40th and 60th.
DK can name five more politicians in addition to Gyurcsany among the first 60 on the list.
Under the agreement, the Socialists can field candidates in 71 individual constituencies, the E-PM 22 and DK altogether 13.

Orban attends 80th birthday celebration of Rudolf Schuster

The head of the press department of the prime minister's office, Bertalan Havasi, told MTI that Orban had conveyed greetings on behalf of the whole of Hungary before the celebrations started in the Kosice state theatre.

Schuster was the second predisent of Slovakia between 1999 and 2004, overlapping Orban's first tenure as prime minister.

Ecumenical service held in memory of Thomas Becket in Esztergom

Forrás: MTI | 2014. 01. 05. 16:26:00
An ecumenical service in memory of Saint Thomas of Canterbury was held at the hillside chapel that bears his name in the Hungarian city of Esztergom on Sunday.

The service was followed by a conference on Christian values and European identity. UNESCO ambassador Katalin Bogyay, Human Resources Minister Zoltan Balog, British ambassador to Hungary Jonathan Knott, Rudnay Sandor Foundation head Laszlo Kiss-Rigo and Szeged University rector Gabor Szabo spoke at the meeting.
Balog said Europe was going through an identity crisis. Tolerance, devoid of any moral base, has been made the focus, he said. He warned that individual values would not add up to a whole and could not become the source of a central driving force.
Balog said that all spiritual and cultural values had been extracted from European constitution, and the peoples of Europe had still failed to agree on what was left of the document.
The message of the time in which Thomas Becket lived is that there is no political or worldly power that is not in need of controls and standards, he said. "There is nothing more dangerous than that power that is unable to control itself. That power that may do anything becomes a dictatorship," he added.
Knott said the future of Europe was seen in the UK in the light of prosperity, respect, justice and democracy. But he noted "mild concern" regarding recent trends that he said would not bring Europe any closer to its citizens.
Szabo said scientific methods were necessary for faith if it was not to remain blind faith. But he also said the sciences require faith because, alone, they are without a system of values. "The sciences require ethics, but this cannot be found in the sciences, it must be brought from outside," he explained.
The ties between Esztergom and Canterbury go back to the 12th century, when Thomas Becket and Lukacs Banfi, who would become the Archbishop of Esztergom, forged a friendship during their studies in Paris.

Hungarian name-days most popular on Hungarian Wikipedia

Forrás: MTI | 2014. 01. 07. 19:10:00

Internet users visited this entry altogether 526,192 times.

The top ten also included a list of famous people who died in 2013, as well as the entries about Hungary, Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, Budapest, poet Sandor Petofi, Facebook, the Chinese board game "Go", the 1848-49 revolution and freedom fight as well as the Second World War.

Budapest festival to celebrate 100 years of Indian cinema

Forrás: MTI | 2014. 01. 08. 11:22:35

The ten-day event will feature great Indian classics, recent box-office hits, comedies, thrillers and the newest international award-winning productions, the centre said. The festival will show besides titles in Hindi other productions made in the Telugu language used by 74 million people in south-eastern India, in Marathi spoken by 70 million in the country's central-western region and in Malayalam, used by 37 million in the south-west.

The festival will open on February 7 in the Puskin cinema with Ketan Mehta's 1987 drama The Spices addressing unusually openly the fully subordinate status and exposure of women in India's society. Other films include 1975 action-adventure Embers, the recent comedy 3 Idiots and the latest hit The Lunchbox.
The festival will also feature three public talks about India's cinema.