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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:

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.

New research on child maltreatment, published by the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, finds that almost 3,500 children under the age of 15 die every year from child abuse in the 27 richest nations of the world. While only Spain, Greece, Italy, Ireland and Norway seem to have an exceptionally low incidence of child maltreatment deaths, levels in some Central European countries, especially Hungary, are four to six times higher. Hungary is listed after the United States, Mexico, and Portugal, as the OECD member with most child maltreatment deaths.

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.

Polish movie fans have set a new record. Gathered in one of Warsaw's cinemas, film buffs watched movies for over 73 hours to beat the previous record set two years ago in Taiwan.

Slovenia's already small population is rapidly dropping because of a low birth rate. What is the problem and will Slovenes soon find themselves on an endangered species list? According to a United Nations report, if Slovenia's population trend continues, it will decline by roughly 400.000 by the year 2050. For a country with just two million inhabitants, this would be a significant loss.

In August 1968, just over 36 years ago, the small Czech town of Milovice was taken over by the Red Army as Moscow moved to crush the Prague Spring. At its height Milovice was home to almost 100,000 Russian military personnel and tens of thousands of Russian civilians. In 1991, the Red Army went home, leaving Milovice to an uncertain fate. But today, over a decade later, Milovice is enjoying something of a renaissance.

The Beslan school hostage tragedy in Russia has triggered a fresh flow of refugees out of Chechnya and some of them are seeking asylum in Poland. Around four hundred ethnic Chechen Russian citizens have petitioned Poland for refugee status in the weeks since the Beslan school siege in which over 320 people died. Poland is now asking - can it cope with the growing number of asylum seekers?