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In Austria, a supermarket chain has begun opening stores for seniors. They're called 50 plus and they're calculating that age has purchasing power.

The UN Aids organisation says there's a climate of fear and ignorance about Aids - and that leads to reluctance to confront rising infection rates. But in Poland there are some positive signs of a change in attitude.

Hungarian scientists have developed a natural substance from wheat germ that reinforces the immune system of an animal, increases meat production and even improves the health of animals. As the EU is soon to ban the use of antibiotics for animals destined for human consumption, research has been going for years to find a natural replacement. Sandor Laczko of Radio Budapest discussed worldwide importance of this invention with one of the researchers, Péter Horn

2000 Days´, 75 Countries, 7 Continents, and 2 Guinness World Records - It all adds up to one incredible trip for Slovene-born Benka Pulko. She has ridden a motorcycle more than 180,000 kilometres, setting the world record for the longest solo motorcycle journey by a woman, in both distance and duration - travelling around the world and on all seven continents. Ksenija Samardzija-Matul of Radio Slovenia caught up with Benka while she was promoting a book about her travels

The Czech Republic is a country with a "low-level epidemic" of HIV - the number of confirmed cases is in the hundreds, rather than the thousands. However, the real figure could be up to ten times higher, and the authorities are worried that people are becoming increasingly complacent about AIDS. Radio Prague's Rob Cameron reports

The European "Union of Jewish Students" has been building new bridges in Budapest. At least that's what they called their seminar. The idea was to bring together young Roma and Jews from all over Europe to learn about the past, present and future relationships between these two major European minorities... and of course make new friends. But as Petra Hajdu of Radio Budapest reports there were hardly any Romany participants present....

Prague's Clementinum, just a stone's throw from the Charles Bridge on the Old Town side of the Vltava River is, after Prague Castle, the second biggest complex of historical buildings in the Czech capital. Established by the Jesuits in the middle of the 16th century, the Clementinum has in recent centuries been home to the Czech National Library and the main Prague weather station. It is also closely associated with time-keeping in the Czech lands, as Radio Prague's Ian Willoughby found out when he visited its Meridian Room.

Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller was in Iraq last week, paying tribute to the first Polish soldier killed in action. Major Hieronim Kupczyk, shot in an ambush, was the first Polish combat casualty since World War II. Poland has been leading a force of about 9,500 international troops in the central part of Iraq since September. But the longer the troops stay in Iraq, the more the military commitment is being met with opposition at home, and the death of Major Kupczyk has fuelled the debate.

The former Yugoslav states of Slovenia and Croatia have recently been embroiled in diplomatic clashes over a range of issues, from territorial borders to a jointly run nuclear power plant. But how much of the tension between Slovenia and Croatia is game playing at government level? Croats vote this weekend to elect a new government. Past parliamentary elections in the country have been marked by national rhetoric and have also been criticised by the European Union. Kerry Skyring asked Dr Erhard Busek, Special Coordinator of the EU's Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, if he was satisfied with the way this election campaign has been run

The Slovak police force has been in the public eye in recent years - but not always for the right reasons: Its image has been damaged by a series of incidents including officers being implicated in armed robberies and drink-driving. The government was so concerned they brought priests into the force to raise moral standards and have a sobering effect on officers. And it may be working.