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Asylum seekers and how to deal with the numbers arriving in Europe continues to dominate the headlines: For example, the Dutch parliament approved controversial plans this week to expel up to 26.000 so called "failed asylum seekers" - some of whom have lived in the Netherlands for years waiting for legal status. The move is unprecedented in Europe and has been condemned by human rights groups. But it's not just Western Europe countries that are debating what to do with their asylum seekers - Slovakia too, has recorded an increasing number of asylum-seekers

One of Europe's last reminders of the iron curtain and the cold war has just been removed - more than a decade after the fall of the Berlin wall. A metal fence that has separated the Italian town of Gorizia from its Slovenian neighbour Nova Gorica since 1947 has been dismantled. It's been done as a gesture to mark the former Yugoslav republic's impending EU membership.

The disease tuberculosis is regarded by most as a thing of the past. But in recent years it has been making something of a comeback, particularly in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Tuberculosis has also been making the news in the Czech Republic, after a 52-year-old man recently died of the disease in north Bohemia. Now Czech authorities have been coming up with novel ways to fight TB.

A recent survey claims as many as half of Polish university students plan to leave the country for good in the hope of better job prospects. Some experts say any permanent flight of Poland's brightest talent would be disastrous for the country's economy. So is it a case of too many graduates and not enough jobs?

After May 1st the Roma will be the European Unions largest minority. They are arguably Europe's most marginalized and persecuted minority too - Attacked in their homelands and often rejected as spongers elsewhere. At least that's how they're being portrayed in some British newspapers at the moment. Those reports have raised fears of a flood of Roma migration after EU enlargement. But is that really likely to happen.

The giant Gabcikovo dam on the Danube River has been a source of dispute between Hungary and Slovakia for over a decade. The Project was begun by Hungary and the former Czechoslovakia in 1977. The goal was to dam the Danube, all the way from Bratislava to Budapest and so generate lots of clean hydroelectric energy. The Dam was eventually finished by Slovakia after Hungary pulled out of the project in 1989. Hungary now says the re-channeling of the Danube for the dam has caused the Northern Hungarian region of Szigetkoz to dry up. Radio Budapest's

The Czech and Slovak governments this week appealed to the 15 European Union members to open their labour markets. Their appeal comes as Sweden, Britain and others say they will block migration from the new member states if there's a rush after the first of May when the EU enlarges - going against a long European tradition of free movement of labour. Britain says it will restrict social security benefits to prevent what Prime Minister Tony Blair calls the "pull factor" but insists it's not going back on a pledge to open its labour market to the

In Ljubljana a group of residents is gathering signatures for a referendum to stop the construction of Slovenia's first mosque. The group says a mosque with its protruding minarets would be out of place in the heart of this mainly Roman Catholic country. Islam is now Slovenia's second-largest religion so is resistance to a Mosque - a sign of religious intolerance

More than 100 Orthodox rabbis gathered in Vienna this week to find ways to revive Jewish life in eastern and central European communities. Many communities are still recovering from the devastation of World War II and the repression during four decades of communism. European Commission President Romano Prodi also attended the conference, which has been dealing with education and support for Jewish communities - mainly in the former communist countries. Eduard Serotta is a filmmaker and photographer who's Vienna based Centropa organisation researches

A much higher percentage of women than men finish their science degrees in central and Eastern Europe - but only a fraction of those women go on to hold positions as researchers or professors in the scientific world. That's according to a report from the European Commission. Their expert group known as ENWISE wants to why women in Central and Eastern Europe are not more represented in Science.