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The issue of granting dual citizenship to ethnic Hungarians in the neighbouring countries is being hotly debated in Hungary following a campaign in the Northern province of Voivodina in former Yugoslavia. The Democratic Federation of Hungarians there are collecting signatures in support of their demand for dual citizenship. But State Secretary Andras Barsony says they have little chance of success

Legal rights for gay and lesbian couples has been hotly debated in Austria as well - The European court recently ruled that an Austrian gay man, Siegmund Karner, who was evicted from his flat when his partner died was the victim of unlawful discrimination. His partner had been the official tenant of the flat. The Austrian Supreme Court had ruled that tenancy protection for a so-called 'life companion' only applied to different sex cohabiters. But the European court judges said the Austrian ruling is discriminatory. Kurt Krickler, is General Secretary

A Hungarian general is about to join the top command of the American-led international military force in Iraq. Brigadier general János Isaszegi, will be one of the seven generals, and the only non-Anglo-American one, taking part in the reconstruction of Iraq. He talked to Radio Budapest about his expectations for the next eight months.

The Vatican is currently running a controversial campaign against gay marriages. It says that gay relationships should in no way be placed on the same level as marriage... nor should they receive legal recognition. The issue of same-sex marriages is particularly charged in Poland at the moment - leftwing lawmakers are currently trying to legalize gay and lesbian partnerships. Gay rights campaigners have welcomed the moves. But the proposal has stirred a huge amount of controversy in conservative circles linked to the powerful Roman Catholic

The first in the ICE series looking at crossing borders in central Europe: This week Oxana Ferjencikova goes duty free shopping on a short ferry journey between Slovakia & Austria.

Wenceslas Square in Prague has changed a great deal since Czechs gathered there during the Velvet Revolution of 1989. It's now home to lots of shops and hordes of tourists, and a lot of so-called 'Praguers' prefer to avoid it. A new exhibition of modern sculptures however is trying to entice Czechs back to the capital's main street. Radio Prague's Ian Willoughby visited Wenceslas Square and asked people what they really thought of the place.

Much is known about how Jews and opposers of the Nazi regime were driven out of Central and Eastern Europe - but what about the ones who remained or returned to - Austria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary ...? An organisation called Centropa has set out to find these elderly Jews and document their stories. They'll be placed on the Internet - providing a kind of "live link" between Jewish past and present.

While Slovakia is trying to combat corruption ahead of EU entry, Slovenia has been told by the EU to give better rights and protection to it's Roma minority.

Whilst Poland and its neighbours deal with the question of war criminals, the Czech Republic is intrigued by a court case which poses other questions about it's past. Franz Ulrich Kinsky - a member of an aristocratic family with long roots in Bohemia - has filed a total of 150 lawsuits, asking the Czech courts to confirm that he is the rightful owner of large amounts of property, which were confiscated from him after the war. He was a child at the time. The Czech authorities argue his father was a Nazi sympathiser and the confiscation was legal

It's now less than one year before Slovakia, along with nine other candidate countries, joins the European Union. But before it does so, the EU says Slovakia has to curb corruption. It's said to be prevalent throughout the country.