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As currencies go, the Slovene Tolar had a short life. It was around for just 15 years before the euro, the common European currency, took over last week. That's when the tolar was no longer accepted for purchases in Slovenia. And there was quite a party to mark the change-over with top EU officials in Ljubljana for the event:

Hungary is trying to clean up its state finance and as part of that process is reforming the health care system. The aim is to make people aware the state can no longer afford the services it once provided. In short the wasteful system inherited from the communist years can not be sustained.

The resignation of the newly appointed archbishop of Warsaw, Stanislaw Wielgus, two days after he admitted that he'd collaborated with the communist secret services and only hours before his formal investiture ceremony, is surely one of the most important events in the history of the Polish Church. How serious is the crisis in the Church and what are the chances for healing the wounds?

Thousands of Slovaks visit Canada and the USA every year. But before the go they need to apply for a visa - a bureaucratic procedure that leaves many of them frustrated. What's the prospect for Slovaks to travel visa-free to North America?

On Tuesday politicians, dignitaries and journalists gathered at Prague Castle to witness yet another change of guard. At midday on Tuesday President Vaclav Klaus appointed a new centre-right government made up of the Civic Democrats, the Christian Democrats and the Green Party.

This week a Slovene priest accused of 16 counts of sexual assault on minors died, closing what was one of the most notorious cases against a member of the Catholic Church in Slovenia. According to a report in the daily Delo, Karel Jost died at the age of 64, reportedly of a stroke.

Like the rest of Central Europe, we're having an unusually warm winter here in the Czech Republic. Some towns and cities have even posted record temperatures often reaching well above the ten degree Celsius mark. With snow scarce on the ground, travel agents say many Czechs who traditionally go to the mountains to ski are now buying holiday packages elsewhere. Naturally, many ski resorts are struggling to adapt to the situation. Dita Asiedu reports:

Chances are you enjoyed a few glasses of wine during the winter break - but if you are a vintner in Slovakia you probably did not drink a toast to the European Commission. The EU's executive body wants to reform the wine industry and Slovak growers says that's not a cause for celebration.

The International Auschwitz Council has unanimously agreed to major renovations at the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz - Birkenau in southern Poland. The site of the death camp has served as the oldest exhibition of the Holocaust. It is a living testament to the horror of the Second World War.

On New Year's Eve, Slovenia joined the eurozone - the first former communist state, and first of the new EU members, to do so.