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Evgeni Plushenko of Russia, the four-times world champion figures skater won his first Olympic Gold Medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics. He then decided to take a break from competitive skating to rest and recover from past knee injuries. In April last year, however, Plushenko announced he would return to the ice to compete in the 2010 Olympics to be held in Vancouver in Canada. Meanwhile he keeps on doing his exhibition show called King of Ice. Two shows are scheduled for Bratislava and Kosice in Slovakia in April. He's been speaking to Slovak

Thousands of people gathered in Vienna's Heldenplatz on Wednesday night to mark the 70th anniversary of the Anschluss - the annexation of Austria into Hitler's Third Reich. It was called the "night of silence".

Janez Drnovšek, the former president and prime minister of Slovenia, died last month, after a long battle with cancer. He was 57 years old. He was many things: one of the last presidents of Yugoslavia and one of the first prime ministers of Slovenia. As Ivana Pristavec from Radio Slovenia International reports, he played a major role in shaping the modern Slovenian state.

The Polish government has been given assurances by the United States that it will help modernize the Polish army as part of a deal on locating a missile defense shield on Polish territory. This at least is part of the outcome of a visit to Washington last week by Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The visit described, even by some opposition politicians in Poland, as the government's "moderate success".

It is almost three months since the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia entered the European Union's border free travel zone, known as Schengen. Border checkpoints between the various countries were ceremonially decommissioned and there was a feeling of optimism and excitement about what Schengen might mean. But have things really changed three months into Schengen membership? Radio Prague's Rosie Johnston has been exploring what it means for Czech's by travelling to the Czech-German border.

Red Nose Day is a day when lots of normal people around the world put on big red noses for charity. In Slovenia Red Noses are being used to raise funds for charity but also to raise smiles and laughter in hospitals.

The ubiquitous opinion poll is a well-used tool for political parties to assess the popularity of their policies. But in Slovakia there's a debate about whether excessive use of polls is leading to populist politics.

Revelations of tax evasion by wealthy individuals channeling their millions into tiny Liechtenstein have created a scandal in Germany and may be starting another in neighbouring Austria. German investigators are now suggesting Austria has been slow to seek any information on citizens who may have used Liechtenstein accounts to evade taxes.

As Poland becomes more and more like its neighbours in western Europe, problems which were only thought to be found in the older EU member states are now making their way to Poland. One such issue is date rape, which is often caused by spiking drinks, causing the victim to fall unconscious and vulnerable to sexual abuse. A new campaign is under way to make Polish youths more conscious of what date rape is and how to avoid becoming its victim.

Thirty years ago Vladimir Remek became the first non-Russian and non-American in space. Remek became a hero in his native Czechoslovakia and across the Eastern Bloc after taking part in an eight-day Soviet space mission in March 1978. The former cosmonaut has been discussing his memories of that historic flight - and the propaganda which accompanied it.