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An African-American basketball player called Maurice Whitfield recently received a Czech passport; he has become a Czech citizen in order to play for the country's international team, after already leading his club Nymburk to success in the national basketball league. Radio Prague's Ian Willoughby caught up with Maurice Whitfield this week, and asked him how he was finding life in the Czech Republic.

The problems of the bankrupt Russian oil giant Yukos are creating headaches for some of Central Europe's energy companies. Yukos had stakes in a number of oil companies in this region including Slovakia's Transpetrol. Now it seems that two Russian companies are interested in buying the Yukos stake. But given the turmoil around Yukos - will Slovaks welcome another Russian investor?

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!

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.

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.

Since the European Union enlarged in May last year tourists from Western Europe have begun streaming into countries which were once just place names on a map and often associated with the greyness of communism. But the reality is that many of the Central European countries have a natural environment more diverse than Western Europe.