ICE - special | All stories

In Budapest, Picasso has been packing them in at the Palace of Exhibitions. Fifty thousand people have been to see Picasso: Illustrated Books and Espana 1950 - The Decade of Rebirth. And across the other side of Budapest's Heroes square in the Museum of Fine Arts - a Monet exhibition attracted 300,000 visitors. We spoke to the director of the Palace of Exhibitions Istvan Barkoczi, and asked him - what's the secret to a successful exhibition?

On August 31st, 24 years ago in Gdansk the Polish authorities signed an accord with striking shipyard workers which became known as the "August Agreement" and in effect signalled the beginning of the end of communism. The day also became symbolic in Poland for united effort which could topple walls - which brought forth the first free trade union in the eastern bloc, Solidarity - and which did change the world:

The Hungarian Olympic team returned from Athens with quite a medal collection - 8 gold, 6 silver and 3 bronze medals. But the haul could have been bigger if two athletes, hammer thrower Adrian Annus and discus thrower Robert Fazekas were not stripped of their medals for breaching doping regulations. Along with these two, three Hungarian weightlifters were also excluded for doping offences.

The European Commission says it wants member states to have more flexibility in framing their budgets. It's proposing changes to what's known as the Growth and Stability Pact - set up to defend the euro's stability. But the growth part of the pact seems to have got lost along the way. Western Europe lags far behind the US and many Asian countries in economic growth. But new EU members from east and central Europe have high growth figures.

Ethiopia has begun an ambitious plan to eradicate the tsetse fly. The insect carries a parasite that causes sleeping sickness that affects a few million people on the continent and makes a quarter of Africa unfit for cattle. Slovakia's National Institute of Zoology has recently begun a project to help affected African states fight the insect.

Slovenia is a small country but with a swag of world record breakers - from marathón swimmers to runners like Jolanda Ceplak. Now another Slovene has added his name to the record books - three months ago Matevz Lenarcic started his solo flight in an ultra-light plane without additional support - from Slovenia over Siberia across the Bering Strait to Alaska, Canada, Iceland and England and back to Slovenia where he landed a week ago.

The Czech Republic has been rocked this week by an unprecedented case in which police say six boys - the youngest of them only 11 - brutally killed an elderly woman. As Czechs come to terms with the shocking crime, questions have been raised about how to deal with young offenders.

Almost twelve months after Poland took charge of the eight thousand strong multinational force in south-central Iraq, a highly difficult time has come for the Polish mission. This follows the deaths of three Polish soldiers in as many days.

The 28th Olympic Games come to their end this weekend. And we know the names of the medal winners and we've seen the emotion on their faces as the music of their national anthems rings out across the stadium. But not too many of us knew that every note of every anthem at the Athens Olympics - came from Slovakia. The famous tunes were arranged by Slovak composer Peter Breiner who recorded them with the Symphonic Orchestra of the Slovak Radio. The manager of the orchestra, Marian Turner:

While Slovenians have been hosting classical music fans, Hungary has been hosting a major folk art festival - the Folkloriada. It's the meeting place for people from all around the world who want to keep their own folk customs traditions and crafts alive - and pass them on. Several Hungarian cities provided the meeting place for dancers, musicians and craft men and women from 72 countries. Dorottya Hoppal is an organiser of the festival: