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Austrians vote for a new President this Sunday. The two candidates are the current Foreign Minister, Benita Ferrero-Waldner of the People's Party and senior Social Democrat Heinz Fischer. At the close of campaigning, opinion polls put Mr Fischer slightly ahead but Mrs Ferrero-Waldner was within striking distance. Genie Johnson reports.

The well-known American financier of Hungarian origin, George Soros, recently said that the ten countries joining the European Union on May 1st should try to come into the euro zone as early as possible because their economies are highly vulnerable to speculation. Judit Barta, a research fellow at the Budapest-based economic research institute GKI very much agrees. She talked to Sandor Laczko of Radio Budapest.

Last week Slovaks elected their next president. The winner Ivan Gasparovic beat his rival Vladimir Meciar by almost 20 percent. He has been in politics for more than 13 years, but for most of that time has been viewed as the second man behind his colleague and party leader Vladimir Meciar.

Move over 'Sex and the City' Samantha: your pearl thong is dated. The thing to be flashing over the tops of your low-cut jeans right now should be hand-made Koniakow lace from Poland. Koniakow is village dating back to the 16th century, situated in the highland region of Silesia, southern Poland. In the 19th century Koniakow became famous for its crocheted lace, and the round white or cream lace tablecloth became a trademark. Tablecloths and altar cloths from Koniakow have made their way to royal owners around the world but there is another new

Only a few weeks ahead of Slovenia's EU accession, debates on the consequences for Slovenia's economy have started again. What will change and what are the expectations of Slovenia's experts in this field?

The hostage crisis in Iraq continues, with several dozen foreign nationals still being held by militants, but three Czech journalists, held since last Sunday, had reason to celebrate on Friday, as they were suddenly and unexpectedly released. David Vaughan reports.

The Slovak National Gallery is for the very first time presenting art works from Slovak private art collections. The presentation of carefully selected items is rare but also unusual - because most of the collectors remain anonymous. They do not want their names associated with their art collections. One of the promoters of art collecting in this country and the co-curator of the exhibition Ivan Melichercik, told Martina Grenova why:

Prague has just witnessed one of the major events in the Czech cultural calendar - the eagerly anticipated premiere of "Nagano" - an opera based on the Czech ice-hockey team's gold-medal triumph at the 1998 Nagano Olympics. Radio Prague's Rob Cameron put on his tuxedo to attend the premiere, and has the following report.

Last Sunday morning the Slovak nation woke up to breaking news. Vladimir Meciar won the first round of presidential poll with slightly over a third of the votes. The second was his former deputy Ivan Gasparovic. Eduard Kukan the favourite of opinion polls and political analysts was third - missing a place in the second round by only 0.19 percent. The former Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar was obviously pleased by his performance.

Count Pal Teleki, was prime minister of Hungary twice - but has never had a statue - until now. And even now it is controversial, because of Teleki's role in the Second World War. His supporters point to the tens of thousands of Polish refugees whose lives he helped save during the war. His detractors say he's the prime minister who submitted anti-Jewish acts to the Hungarian parliament in pre-war Hungary. Teleki committed suicide in 1941 and now a statue has been erected in a rural town. Gyorgi Jakobi has more.