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The Hungarian Folk singer Iren Lovasz has been giving a series of concerts in Saint Stephen's Basilica in Budapest and in several ancient churches around Hungary. A folk singer at the very beginning of her career, Iren then made her name as a performer of world music. She's a mother of 3 and has a world music group, but sacred music is now her main focus. Gyorgyi Jakobi asked Iren Lovasz - why sacred music:

Relations between Slovakia and Hungary are strained following a number of violent racist attacks against Hungarians living in Slovakia. Hungary's government has asked Slovakia's to publicly condemn the attacks. Anca Dragu reports from Bratislava:

Poland continues to cause anger and some amazement in the European Union. The latest stir is over capital punishment - long banished from the EU. The far-right League of Polish Families is calling for its reinstatement and President Lech Kaczynski has made comments supporting capital punishment in certain cases. Agnieszka Bielawska has the details:

The European Commission has launched a campaign to improve health and safety in the workplace for small businesses in the recently joined EU member states along with Bulgaria and Romania. Slovakia, one of those countries, has enacted most of the new rules into legislation - but do Slovak workers know about them? Anca Dragu has been finding out:

If we say Hitler and beetles, you may think of a fascist dictator and an old Volkswagen car. But there's another kind of beetle linked to the notorious German dictator, lurking in the caves of Slovenia. Michael Manske of Radio Slovenia International has more on this curious story:

It is now official: Our solar system has only eight planets. In Thursday's vote at the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union here in Prague, astronomers from all over the world approved a definition of what a planet is and decided to relegate Pluto into a special category called "dwarf planets". As a result of the Prague congress, textbooks around the world will now have to be rewritten.

Dramatic headlines in some Czech papers this week warned of an "illegal car race" heading for Prague which will leave the city overrun by rusty wrecks, turning it into a giant scrap yard. The reason: the rally crossing six states is called "Czech Wrecks 2006" and cars taking part in it must not be worth more than 100 pounds.

In Slovakia the government's Anti-monopoly Office is under fire over the sale of the country's major airports. Its critics says it has succumbed to political interference after postponing the sale of a majority stake in Bratislava Airport to an Austrian led consortium known as TwoOne- which included Vienna International airport. The Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has since made it known the deal is off. Anca Dragu reports from Bratislava.

A group of young Slovenes has set about using their computer skills to help their fellow citizens who've moved to Brussels following Slovenia's membership of the EU in 2004. They've started Bruslov.net Michael Manske of Radio Slovenia International spoke to Dragan Barbutovski, one of the sites founders.

Debate about Guenter Grass, the German Nobel Prize laureate in literature, has been raging across Europe - after his recent admission that he was recruited into the Waffen SS just near the end of World War 2. And outside of Germany, nowhere is the debate more intense than in Poland. Guenter Grass was born in the port city of Gdansk and has been awarded honorary citizenship of Gdansk. Now politicians from Poland's governing Law and Justice party have called on the writer to give up that honour. Slawek Szefs reports.