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A dispute over an anti-discrimination law - or rather the lack of one - is keeping politicians busy in Slovakia. European Parliament officials have warned Slovakia and other states who are about to become members that if they do not approve anti-discrimination legislation by the end of the year, they may face sanctions from the Brussels.

The European Commission head is in dispute with the Slovak government over 500 million dollars of subsidies to a U.S. Steel Corporation Plant - - it's a state aid row, which threatens to cast a shadow over the country's EU entry this May. In the EU, state aid to the steel sector is tightly controlled, and government bailouts must be linked to cuts in capacity - something it's says is NOT happening at Slovakia's Kosice plant which was bought by U.S. Steel in 2000.

Several of Europe and North America's major cities have Chinatowns, areas populated with Chinese immigrants. Now, however, that trend is being reversed somewhat, with the building of a "Czechtown" in the Chinese city of Shanghai. Radio Prague's Ian Willoughby has been finding out more.

Hundreds of small dairy producers in Poland face closure if they fail to improve hygiene and animal welfare standards ahead of EU entry. Strict EU monitoring is expected to cause problems for farmers in all the candidate countries of Central and Eastern Europe. But in Poland the problem is affecting regions already depressed by high unemployment figures

Only 3% of the EU's population are farmers yet Agriculture accounts for 50% of the European Commission's budget. And that budget is coming under pressure as the EU enlarges. The question is will Europeans be willing to pay more in order to keep subsidising farmers incomes? Agriculture spokesmen and women from EU candidate countries are meeting in Vienna at the moment on how to explain Agriculture and the EU's Common Agriculture Policy. Daniel Kapp is spokesman for Austria's Agriculture minister.

The world-renowned photographer Inge Morath was born in Graz - the capital of the Austrian province of Styria. She died at the end of January 2002, but before then journeyed through the borderland between southern Styria and Slovenia searching for clues to her family's origins. Her mother was born in an area that today lies in Slovenia. Out of Inge Morath's last journeys came an exhibition called "Border.Areas" Karen Engel when to the first showing of the exhibition and filed this report...

Poland is facing problems in creating a modern knowledge based economy. That is an economy in which wealth is created through production, distribution and use of knowledge. A preliminary report from the World Bank identifies some of the barriers and it lists - a monopoly in fixed-line telephones, loose ties between universities and firms, and flaws in the educational system. Rick Woodward is one of the authors of the report. He's an economist at the Centre for Social and Economic Research in Poland

Hundreds of abattoirs in Hungary have been given until the 1st of March to improve hygiene and animal welfare standards - or close. But the Hungarian government is stepping in to bail them out, with a credit line of 100 billion forints - that's almost 400 million Euros to help Hungarian businesses, including slaughterhouses, comply with the EU's food safety standards. Tibor Szanyi is state secretary in the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture. He says slaughterhouses-in need- can also get help from the EU' SAPARD program.

A look at an unusual tourist trade that's transforming an area of western Poland, and getting itself a name across the Atlantic too.

The Czechs are the world's number one beer drinkers, at least that's according to a report by the Czech Association of Breweries and Distilleries. The Czechs traditionally top world league tables on beer drinking, last year consuming on average, 162 beers per person - more beer per person than people in any other country in the world.