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Austrians vote for a new President this Sunday. The two candidates are the current Foreign Minister, Benita Ferrero-Waldner of the People's Party and senior Social Democrat Heinz Fischer. At the close of campaigning, opinion polls put Mr Fischer slightly ahead but Mrs Ferrero-Waldner was within striking distance. Genie Johnson reports.

The well-known American financier of Hungarian origin, George Soros, recently said that the ten countries joining the European Union on May 1st should try to come into the euro zone as early as possible because their economies are highly vulnerable to speculation. Judit Barta, a research fellow at the Budapest-based economic research institute GKI very much agrees. She talked to Sandor Laczko of Radio Budapest.

Last week Slovaks elected their next president. The winner Ivan Gasparovic beat his rival Vladimir Meciar by almost 20 percent. He has been in politics for more than 13 years, but for most of that time has been viewed as the second man behind his colleague and party leader Vladimir Meciar.

At the beginning of this week the European Commissioner for External Relations Chris Patten and Enlargement Commissioner Günther Verheugen gave Croatia the go-ahead to start negotiations to gain full EU membership. What was the reaction in Croatia itself and what are expectations in neighbouring Slovenia? Ksenija Samardzija Matul from Radio Slovenia International has more:

Just fifteen years ago it would have been unthinkable for citizens of countries on one side of the Iron Curtain to vote in elections held on the other. In June this will become a reality. In a few days' time eight former communist countries will be joining the European Union, and elections to the European Parliament will follow six weeks later. EU citizens who are resident in another member country will be entitled to vote for that country's candidates, and that includes the new members. Radio Prague's David Vaughan, a British citizen and Prague

Over 6,000 young Jewish young people from around the world and 600 Poles have taken part in the 2.5 kilometre trek from Auschwitz to Birkenau, the route of the death march taken by more than one million Jews during the Holocaust. This report from Bogdan Zaryn begins with Sophie, a Jewish teenager from Canada who's come to Poland for the very first time...

The Slovak National Gallery is for the very first time presenting art works from Slovak private art collections. The presentation of carefully selected items is rare but also unusual - because most of the collectors remain anonymous. They do not want their names associated with their art collections. One of the promoters of art collecting in this country and the co-curator of the exhibition Ivan Melichercik, told Martina Grenova why:

Prague has just witnessed one of the major events in the Czech cultural calendar - the eagerly anticipated premiere of "Nagano" - an opera based on the Czech ice-hockey team's gold-medal triumph at the 1998 Nagano Olympics. Radio Prague's Rob Cameron put on his tuxedo to attend the premiere, and has the following report.

Move over 'Sex and the City' Samantha: your pearl thong is dated. The thing to be flashing over the tops of your low-cut jeans right now should be hand-made Koniakow lace from Poland. Koniakow is village dating back to the 16th century, situated in the highland region of Silesia, southern Poland. In the 19th century Koniakow became famous for its crocheted lace, and the round white or cream lace tablecloth became a trademark. Tablecloths and altar cloths from Koniakow have made their way to royal owners around the world but there is another new

Only a few weeks ahead of Slovenia's EU accession, debates on the consequences for Slovenia's economy have started again. What will change and what are the expectations of Slovenia's experts in this field?