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The story of Slovenian swimmer Martin Strel is a remarkable one. He's the man who braved crocodiles, piranhas, disease and the threat of a heart attack to swim the Amazon. He's also swum the length of the Danube, the Yangtze and the Mississippi rivers but it was the Amazon which really did test his strength.

Slovakia will acquire another huge investment project. The Central European Park for Innovative Technologies or CEPIT will be the largest Technological Park in the region. Michal Groch went to the unofficial presentation of CEPIT to find out more.

This week marked the second anniversary of Pope John Paul the Second's death, as well as the completion of the first stage of his beatification process. Pole's adored their Pope while he was alive and now that he's gone, they're finding new ways to hold onto him. Visitors to Poland can now take a train and follow the tracks John Paul made in his homeland.

The Czech coalition government on Tuesday unveiled a package of ambitious tax reforms and spending cuts, aiming to reduce the country's fiscal deficit and prepare it for the adoption of the Euro. Among other measures, the plan introduces a flat 15-percent personal income tax and raises the lower VAT rate from 5 to 9 percent. The reform package will be presented to parliament in June. However, the centre-right government of Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek has no guaranteed majority in the lower house.

As of the 1st April Slovenia is without a governor of its Central Bank. The situation has arisen due to a stalemate between the president and the coalition parties on the new candidate. Slovenia's governing coalition in Parliament has already rejected two nominees for the post proposed by Slovenia's president Janez Drnovsek.

A survey by the New York based Luxury Institute says the most popular porcelain brand in the United States is Herend, from western Hungary.

The Budapest office of the UNHCR, the UN's Refugee Agency, has just awarded a small Hungarian theatre group with this year's Asylum Prize. The group, under the direction of Rodrigo Balogh has been performing the drama Mirad - a Boy from Bosnia by Dutch author Ad de Bont with the aim of building tolerance towards refugees in Hungary. UNHCR press officer Andrea Szobolits told Radio Budapest why the prize was awarded:

This week the European Commission said it was going to cut substantially the Czech Republic's greenhouse gas emissions quota. The news has the Czech industrial sector up in arms, and there have been reports electricity bills will rise. The government is now considering whether to fight the decision in a European court. But does the Czech Republic really need a higher quota?

Seventy years ago, on March 29th 1937, Polish composer Karol Szymanowski died in Lausanne, Switzerland. But this year also marks the 125th anniversary of his birth and the Polish Parliament has therefore declared 2007 Szymanowski Year with numerous events promoting his music around the country. Polish Radio's External Service reflects on the work of the composer who many say deserved far more attention than he has been given.

In the 1930s, a group of promising young men travelled to ski jumping competitions abroad. Among them were the General Secretary of the Yugoslav Winter-Sport Association Joso Gorec and the engineer Stanko Bloudek. Thanks to these men, Slovenes now consider themselves pioneers of ski-jumping and it is in Planica where it all began.