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This year's Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles was followed with bated breath in Poland. The hopes of Polish film fans were set on the movie Finding Neverland, and they were not disappointed.

With the Visegrad countries - Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, importing most of their crude oil and natural gas requirements from Russia, is Central Europe too dependent on Russian energy?

Several thousand farmers, and a few hundred with their tractors, are protesting on Budapest's historic Heroes' Square at what they say is government delay in getting European Union subsidies - known as "direct payments" - to them.

US President George W. Bush greeted Slovaks who gathered in thousands to hear him speak in the centre of Bratislava on Thursday. He called them "friends, allies and brothers" and harked back to the days of the Velvet Revolution when Slovaks and Czechs threw off communist rule. After praising Slovakia for its young democracy and for sending soldiers to Afghanistan and Iraq, Mr Bush went off to Bratislava Castle for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. It's interesting to speculate why Bratislava was chosen for the Bush-Putin summit but

The Polish government has adopted a restitution bill, which is yet to go before parliament, allowing for the return of private property which was confiscated by the Nazis during the Second World War and later nationalized by the communist authorities.

Slovenia will soon begin constructing what it calls a "European Aeronautical Museum" in the eastern city of Maribor. Radio Slovenia International spoke to the man behind the project - the president of the Slovenian National Party and aviation enthusiast, Zmago Jelincic.

George Bush came and went. Slovaks are happy that viewers of international TV networks finally got to hear about Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. Although, one big American newspaper had problems placing the country on the map - its editors confused Slovakia with Slovenia!

Last summer Stanislav Gross became Czech prime minister at just 34 years of age. The youngest leader in Europe, he also enjoyed high personal ratings. But now questions about how he financed the purchase of his luxury home have seriously tarnished his reputation - and pushed the Czech coalition government to the brink. Radio Prague's Ian Willoughby has the story.

A debate is on in Poland over whether the Polish president should visit Moscow in May for ceremonies marking the anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Red Army over Nazi Germany. The controversy began after the Russian Foreign Ministry accused Poland and other countries of attempts to 'distort the results of the Yalta conference'.

Bratislava will be hosting the summit of Presidents George Bush and Vladimir Putin next week. But the Slovak capital may seem an unusual location for such a high profile event, especially since just seven years ago, Slovakia was considered something of a pariah in Central Europe under the nationalistic leadership of then Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar.