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After Charles Taylor, accused of gun-running, war crimes and leading an army of child soldiers, was forced to resign as president of Liberia last year, the world media paid little attention to the West African country. Its citizens have yet to recover from years of civil war, social unrest, and poverty. A Prague-based organisation now hopes to come to their aid.

A new campaign urging Poles to up their spending on humanitarian aid to developing countries has been launched in Warsaw under the auspices of the United Nations Development Programme and the Polish Foreign Ministry. The "Time to Help Others" campaign hopes to stimulate public awareness of the needs of other nations and make Poles realize that they are much better off than 150 countries around the world.

The 39th Borstnik theatre festival opened in Maribor on Friday. Named after actor Ignacij Borstnik, the founder of modern Slovene theatre and the art of acting, it is Slovenia's central theatre festival, hosting the best performances from the season's domestic theatre every year.

One of this year's Nobel Prize winners in chemistry is Avram Hershko - an Israeli scientist born in Hungary. His discovery sets out a new chapter in degrading proteins, which play a crucial role in the curing process of a number of neurological or tumour diseases.

US presidential candidate John Kerry received support from rather unlikely quarters this week - a small town in the Czech Republic. Horni Benesov - population 2,400 - is the birthplace of John Kerry's grandfather Fritz Kohn, a German-speaking Jew who emigrated to the US in 1904. This week the town granted John Kerry honorary citizenship, and are backing his bid to become president. Eva Otahalova is involved in the campaign to support Senator Kerry; we asked her whether this meant he enjoyed great popularity in Horni Benesov.

Poland's Defence Minister has come out in favour of withdrawing the country's troops from Iraq by the end of next year. Although the minister's view point did not reflect government policy but was rather a personal comment, it did spark a heated discussion in Parliament. It also dovetails with public opinion. According to a recent poll, 70 percent of the population is against the continued presence in Iraq.

Since Slovenia's independence in 1991, the center-left party (LDS) has dominated national politics. Their nearly 12-year streak (with only brief interruptions) came to an end during last Sunday's parliamentary elections, when the center-right party, the SDS, led by Janez Jansa, swept to victory. Although final, official results are still pending, all signs are pointing to Janez Jansa being tipped as Slovenia's next prime minister. We recently spoke with Mr. Jansa about the election results and the future of the country:

A recent television message, believed to have been delivered by the Al-Qaeda terrorist group, called for organised action against Hungary. We spoke to the Director of the Institute of Transitional Democracy and International Security, Sebestyen Gorka, to find out whether Hungary should be taking the warning seriously.

The academic year started a month ago and teachers' salaries in Slovakia are back on the agenda. After Slovak teachers found that their salaries are the lowest in Central Europe, their only hope has been their EU Commissioner for Education Jan Figel, who has promised to push for a fair and high-quality education system in the European Union. But according to Slovak Education Minister Martin Fronc his efforts in cabinet during discussion on next year's state budget have paid off too:

In 1905, the first ever Slovak political party was formed and until today its leader, Andrej Hlinka, is considered one of the driving forces behind the long and windy road towards an independent Slovak state, which came to being almost 85 years later. Nevertheless, Andrej Hlinka, is also a controversial figure in Slovak history. As a nationalist politician active in both the Hungarian monarchy and Czechoslovakia, he was almost always in opposition. On September 27, Slovak's commemorated Andrej Hlinka on the 140th anniversary of his birth.