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In much of Central Europe there's an Easter Monday tradition which can surprise and shock outsiders. Men go from house to house symbolically beating women with a whip made from a few twigs of willow. In some countries, they also pour water or perfume on them. It's supposed to bring women good health throughout the year and women are expected to thank the men with an Easter egg, some food, drink, or a coin. Sounds strange? Katarina Richterova has more on this common custom in Central Europe's Catholic countries:

European Union foreign ministers have imposed a visa ban on the newly re-elected president of Belarus - Alexander Lukashenko and 30 of his top officials. The move, strongly supported by the Czech Republic and Poland, is aimed at pressing home the 25-nation bloc's denunciation of his re-election last month. Belarus dismissed the ban as "short-sighted". Mr Lukashenko is often referred to as Europe's last dictator.

In Hungary, the governing Socialist party MSZP took a narrow lead over the centre right Fidesz-KDNP in the first round of the parliamentary elections. Two smaller parties also achieved enough votes in the first round to get back into parliament. The battle ahead of the second round of voting on April 23, is indeed fierce.

Slovenia received an early Easter gift this year from the Vatican, when Pope Benedict approved plans for three new dioceses in the small Catholic country. Michael Manske sat down with one of the country's new bishops to talk about the new changes to the Slovenian Catholic Church.

Speculation about a possible takeover of retail chain Mercator by Serb investors has sent shivers down the spines of Slovenians. Mercator is Slovenia's largest grocery chain and one of the biggest companies in the country. The rumours leaked at the beginning of the month, and immediately investors and the media alike struggled to find out whether the news was an April Fool's Day joke or real.

If you go for a stroll along the bank of the Danube in Bratislava, a billboard depicting a map of Hungary will almost certainly catch your eye. The map is colourful and the writing is entirely in Hungarian. It attracts attention because it is surrounded by other billboards advertising political parties ahead of Slovakia's June elections. Could it be part of the pre-election campaign of the ethnic Hungarian SMK party? Martina Grenova has been investigating. She found out that the map, which has been causing quite some controversy in Slovakia, has

The Czech Republic's security apparatus has at times looked very rickety indeed. The latest revelations, about the country's security vetting agency, the National Security Office or NBU, will have come as no surprise. An internal inquiry into malpractice at the NBU unveiled severe shortcomings which could have jeopardised the country's national security.

Irena Sendler is one of the unsung heroes of World War II. Now 96 years old, she saved 2,500 Jewish children from the Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Poland. The Polish Association of the Children of the Holocaust recently established an award named after this remarkable woman. It is to be presented annually to teachers who have made teaching about the Holocaust their mission. The Irena Sendler awards were recently presented for the first time.

The Budapest Museum of Fine arts is celebrating its centenary with the country's largest art exhibition of all time which opened under the title "Art and Culture in the Era of King Sigismund of Luxembourg". The exhibition, featuring 400 works of art from about 100 museums, libraries and church treasuries from 19 countries, focuses on the colourful personality, political career and art patronage of King Sigismund.

Gdansk Shipyard, the cradle of Solidarity, which toppled communist rule in Poland, has a group of North Korean workers busy on the site. Shipyard officials say that the North Korean welders are filling vacancies left open by Polish workers who have left for greener pastures in the EU. But the team is said to be working in a gulag environment. Apparently, the repressive North Korean government is pocketing their wages, while the workers are constantly being watched by North Korean communist party members.