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What is the best time to learn how to dance or to upgrade your dancing skills? Most people would say - in the run-up to the carnival season - and they are probably right but if one made a round of Warsaw's dance schools at this time of year the answer would be little bit different. It appears that the summer months witness an unprecedented upsurge in the popularity of dance classes.

Since joining the EU in 2004 the former communist countries of Central Europe have been drawing on EU structural funds to improve infrastsructure, reduce poverty and support agriculture. However in the case of Slovakia there's a risk that some of that money - up to 11 billion euros - may never be allocated. The problem is a dispute over who gets to hold the purse strings - Bratislava or the regions.

This week marks the fifth anniversary of the devastating 2002 floods that hit the Czech Republic, including the capital, Prague. Since the deluge, billions of crowns have gone into repairing the damage. Several parts of the city which, for decades had looked a little down-at-heel, were given something of a facelift. One such area is the Vltava River's right bank, which Prague City Council is now hoping to transform into a promenade lined with attractions.

On Tuesday Hungarian artists, upset about pollution of the Raab River by an Austrian leather factory, gave a concert in Budapest. Around 500 people were there to hear activists claim Austria is doing nothing to prevent the pollution and to urge Hungarians to boycott Austrian products. It's reported even Wiener Schnitzel is off the menu in many Hungarian restaurants - or at the very least - it's no longer called Wiener Schnitzel.

Two years ago, three students from Warsaw, Poland - Maciek, Pawel and Agnieszka, all single and Catholic, founded Poland's first online Catholic dating service. Right now the community is 27 thousand strong and growing. Do Catholic singles in Poland have to go online to find a spouse?

The last few months have seen an increase in the number of owners in the Czech Republic selling successful companies, first established or privatised in the early 1990s. According to analysts, many privately-owned firms have reached a milestone, whereby owners now in their 50s or 60s are weighing whether to take them to the next level - or sell.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has sharply criticised private capital and managers of pension funds. He accuses them of endangering the pensions of Slovak workers.

An famous landmark in Slovenia, the Palace Hotel, is being restored after years of neglect. It was the largest hotel in the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire but eventually fell into ruin and has been closed since the days of Yugoslavia.

It might seem incredible, but an estimated one in six cars in the Czech Republic could be stolen or at least contain stolen parts. That's according to shocking new figures released by the Association for the Protection of Car Owners, or SOVA. The organisation claims there are almost half a million stolen cars on the roads. Radio Prague's Rob Cameron has the story.

Plans for constructing a massive casino complex on Slovenia's border with Italy have opened up a rift between some residents and local authorities. Some groups are even calling for a nationwide referendum on it.