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In Slovakia hundreds of Roma, have been demonstrating this week against government cuts in welfare benefits. Slovakia's centre-right government introduced the welfare cuts at the beginning of this year, as part of its efforts to strengthen the economy ahead of EU membership in May. But these cuts have hit the impoverished Roma community especially hard.

The EU Commission has been deciding where it's 10 new members will work before getting their own portfolios - a kind of work shadowing. Current Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen is to be twinned with Slovenia's upcoming EU commissioner Janez Potocnik. Ksenjia Samardzija-Matul asked Mr Potocnik what he hopes to achieve over the next six months.

One of Europe's last reminders of the iron curtain and the cold war has just been removed - more than a decade after the fall of the Berlin wall. A metal fence that has separated the Italian town of Gorizia from its Slovenian neighbour Nova Gorica since 1947 has been dismantled. It's been done as a gesture to mark the former Yugoslav republic's impending EU membership.

A large the number of people in central Europe are planning to leave their countries in search of a better job. Hungary is one such country - where a large number of highly qualified research and development people, have already moved overseas. This so-called 'brain drain' problem has long been recognised - but now one young businesswoman who returned to her homeland has created an organisation to encourage other young people to move their brains - and their business - back home. Regina Saphier is the founder of the Retour Office. Sándor Laczkó

A large number of refugees leaving Slovakia head across the border to Austria. But Austria is also having troubles dealing with the inflow of asylum seekers - its main reception centre at Traiskirchen near Vienna is full to capacity. One response from Austria has been to ask Slovakia to move its asylum centres further East - but will this solve the problem? Kerry Skyring puts the question to Roland Schönbauer - a spokesman for the UNHCR in Vienna.

Although presidential elections are not due to be held in Poland until the end of next year, there's already a good deal of speculation on the possible candidates for the post. More than that, there's already been one victim of the race.

The Czech Republic saw the number of people using the Internet rise 10 percent in January, and one person in four now has some regular access to the web. But the numbers are still low in comparison to richer neighbours like Austria or Germany, - and the main reason is the cost. Radio Prague's Rob Cameron has this report from Prague.

Asylum seekers and how to deal with the numbers arriving in Europe continues to dominate the headlines: For example, the Dutch parliament approved controversial plans this week to expel up to 26.000 so called "failed asylum seekers" - some of whom have lived in the Netherlands for years waiting for legal status. The move is unprecedented in Europe and has been condemned by human rights groups. But it's not just Western Europe countries that are debating what to do with their asylum seekers - Slovakia too, has recorded an increasing number of asylum-seekers

In Ljubljana a group of residents is gathering signatures for a referendum to stop the construction of Slovenia's first mosque. The group says a mosque with its protruding minarets would be out of place in the heart of this mainly Roman Catholic country. Islam is now Slovenia's second-largest religion so is resistance to a Mosque - a sign of religious intolerance

The disease tuberculosis is regarded by most as a thing of the past. But in recent years it has been making something of a comeback, particularly in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Tuberculosis has also been making the news in the Czech Republic, after a 52-year-old man recently died of the disease in north Bohemia. Now Czech authorities have been coming up with novel ways to fight TB.