Budapest Week Publishing has collected a nice sum in charity at its recent Valentine’s Day Gala evening. The proceeds from that event are used to fulfill the wishes of two children through the Csodalámpa (Magic Lamp) Foundation.

The Hungarian government is planning to impose a new tax, according to a bill on meteorology. The ‘service fee’ would be 0.5% of the annual advertising revenues of any media - irrespective of whether they broadcast weather forecasts/reports or not!

Japanese car parts maker TS Tech Co. Ltd. is setting up a plant in Százhalombatta, south of the Hungarian capital, Budapest. The Hungarian subsidiary, TS Tech Hungary Ltd., is to be established with a capital of EUR 3 million.

Hungary’s Economics minister György Matolcsy has been nominated by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as the next Governor of the National Bank of Hungary (NBH). Matolcsy follows András Simor whose six-year mandate expires on March 3.

The Travel exhibition, the biggest travel fair of Hungary, opened this Thursday at the Hungexpo fair site in the Hungarian capital, inviting visitors to get to know the attractions, the culture and gastronomy of several countries from the five continents.

The Hungarian Foreign Ministry has confirmed that one of the victims of the deadly hot-air balloon accident over Luxor, Egypt was a woman of Hungarian nationality. She was one of the 18 tourists who died as a balloon exploded in the air.

A drawing by a Hungarian artist, Fedinánd Horváth, has been recovered from the Disney archives 74 years after it was made. The 1938 sketch depicts Mickey Mouse having a nightmare under the influence of too much laughing gas.

A regional center in Budapest will be responsible for operations in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Croatia in the new European organizational structure of French food group Danone, the company said in a statement.

Budapest Week Publishing held a special Diplomacy and Trade Business Club ('The Club') event to celebrate Valentine's Day in the Corinthia Hotel Budapest, attended - among others - by businesspeople and their spouses.

The state debt in Hungary was of the second highest value ever at the end of January when the debt of the central budget was HUF 21,187.8 billion (currently over EUR 72 billion), which means a huge increase of HUF 467.7 billion over a year.

Within the framework of the SymbioCity 2013 program, the Smart City conference took place in the ‘Green House’ in Budapest this week focusing on sustainable urban environment with the participation of Swedish and Hungarian experts.

German car manufacturer Opel is expanding its engine factory in Szentgotthárd, southwestern Hungary. The project is worth EUR 130 million, which will create 160 new jobs and increase production space by 1600 square meters.

The French School of Budapest, an international institution, which prepares pupils for the French Baccalauréat is organizing an open day on Friday, 8th March 2013 from 1:00 to 5:00 pm, the school management says in a statement.

Among the European cardinals, Hungary’s Péter Erdõ is the favorite in the conclave to be elected as the next Pope, according to the ‘Italian Insider’ that says 60-year-old Erdõ could be pontiff for a long time. Hungarian circles dismiss the idea.

The Advisory Board of the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) Team of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) admitted Hungary as a new member at its annual meeting on February 5-6 in Geneva, Switzerland.