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Political freedom, freedom of expression, religion and movement were the ideals of the protesters who gathered at the SNP square in Bratislava on November 17th in protest at the Communist regime. Now, 16 years later, many Slovaks claim they expected more from the Velvet Revolution.

A major international conference on Islam, held in Vienna this last week, heard appeals for religious leaders to condemn violence waged in the name of Islam. The three day meeting brought together over a thousand people including heads of state, intellectuals and religious leaders.

Czechs and Slovaks marked the 16th anniversary of the start of the 1989 Velvet Revolution on Thursday, a time when people remember the overthrow of Communist rule and reflect on the changes that have swept society since then. But discontent is growing with the current political situation, and that discontent was reflected in the mood on the streets of Prague. Radio Prague's Rob Cameron has this report.

Hungarians, it seems, are different. Certainly young Hungarians differ from their western European counterparts when it comes to lifestyle, family and consumer behaviour. That's the point made by a new international survey, which looked at lifestyles of young people in thirteen European and five Latin American countries.

When the director of the Chopin competition in Warsaw announced the final results of the event, Polish music fans held their breadth in anticipation. They had waited for this kind of news for three decades.

The Council of Europe this week opened an investigation into allegations the CIA is running secret prisons for terror suspects in eastern and central European democracies. The allegations first came to light in the Washington Post and were backed up by the Human Rights Watch, which says it has evidence the CIA flew suspected terrorists captured in Afghanistan to Poland and Romania.

Slovenia is hoping to adopt the euro - the European common currency - in January of 2007. But when the Bank of Slovenia recently unveiled designs for their new euro coins, it caused a stir in parts of neighbouring Austria. Why should Austria worry about what Slovenia puts on its coins?

While young Hungarians may be clinging to tradition - their neighbours in Slovakia are abandoning traditional ways. At least they're not marrying as much as they once did. Slovakia is seeing a rise in the number of unwed couples even though 80 percent of the population claims to have Christian values. So what's with weddings in Slovakia?

Two of the country's leading skin tissue specialists and three other employees from the biggest of the country's eight tissue banks are under police investigation. They are believed to have pocketed around one million crowns from the sale of human skin to a skin bank in the Netherlands.

Hungary has nominated the town of Pecs for the title of Cultural Capital of Europe in 2010. Pecs was chosen over six other cities, including the capital Budapest. The international jury said the bid aims to develop the city's cultural wealth and focuses on its regional role. Istvan Tarrosy is the man heading the Pecs bid. He told Radio Budapest why this bid won favour with the jury.