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This coming week will see ceremonies in Budapest and other capitals of Central Europe marking the 50th anniversary of Hungary's 1956 uprising against the Soviet Union. An uprising, which was quickly and brutally crushed but which was one of the defining moments of the Cold War and, of course, recent Hungarian history.

Slovakia is to withdraw its soldiers from Iraq - the 99 troops will come home in February next year. But Bratislava says it wants to keep good contacts with Baghdad and one reason is that it sells significant quantities of arms and ammunition to Iraq. As Anca Dragu reports from Bratislava, Slovakia's new government has big plans to revitalise its arms industry:

This is a special Christmas program of Insight Central Europe with stories from across the region. We hear how a family business in Poland helps brighten up festive celebrations around the world and we drop in on the fish markets in Prague to hear how the Czechs love their Christmas Carp. From Budapest there's a story on how Hungarians help the poor. In other stories, we visit eastern Slovakia to hear how a community of Greek Catholics keeps their Christmas traditions alive, and from Slovenia we hear how Christmas traditions have adapted to a changing

The top opposition leader in Belarus says Slovakia is still searching for a clear policy towards Belarus. Aleksandr Milinkevich was speaking during a visit to Bratislava where he sought support for pro-democratic forces in Belarus. President Alexander Lukashenko's rule of Belarus is marked by violence against dissidents and elections which are widely regarded as illegitimate. The opposition leader met Foreign Minister Jan Kubis - but not Prime Minister Robert Fico.

Finland has wrapped up its EU presidency with a summit in Brussels and now planning passes to the next three - Germany, Portugal and Slovenia. That makes 2007 a big year for tiny Slovenia because it also adopts the common European currency the Euro on January ist. The incoming EU troika has given Insight Central Europe a look at its EU presidency progamme.

25 years ago, on a snowy Sunday morning, Poles woke up to an entirely new reality; martial law - imposed by the Communist authorities in an attempt to halt the pro-democratic forces of Solidarity. Poles and the world were shocked.

It would be easy to believe that the suffering of those deported during the Holocaust came to an end with the liberation of the death camps. But an exhibition in Budapest shows this is not quite the case. Return and Resumption - staged by the Holocaust Memorial Centre in Budapest - shows what awaited Hungarian Jews who survived the holocaust.

Thirty years ago a handful of people met in a flat in Prague to discuss the communist regime's failure to observe fundamental human rights. What grew out of that meeting was to become the first dissident movement in the Soviet bloc, a movement which played a key role in bringing about the end of totalitarian communism in Czechoslovakia. And, perhaps typically for a country that seems to produce more than its fair share of oddities and idiosyncracies, it all began with a psychedelic rock band.

Slovene's have been debating state funding for abortions after a government minister suggested that funding should be stopped as part of a plan to lift birth rates.

Slovakia held local elections last week with voters choosing their mayors and members of local councils. The biggest surprise was the defeat of the incumbent mayor of Zilina the infamous leader of the Slovak National Party Jan Slota. Anca Dragu reports from Bratislava.