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In Budapest, Picasso has been packing them in at the Palace of Exhibitions. Fifty thousand people have been to see Picasso: Illustrated Books and Espana 1950 - The Decade of Rebirth. And across the other side of Budapest's Heroes square in the Museum of Fine Arts - a Monet exhibition attracted 300,000 visitors. We spoke to the director of the Palace of Exhibitions Istvan Barkoczi, and asked him - what's the secret to a successful exhibition?

For the second time this year an unemployed woman from eastern Slovakia is on a hunger strike. Her first strike went largely unnoticed but this time the public paid attention.

The Czech Republic's commercial television stations - founded since the Velvet Revolution - have traditionally relied on imported soap operas, many of them from South America. But now, however, the commercial channels are investing heavily in domestically produced drama, and the autumn schedules are - for the first time - full of Czech-produced serials.

Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski has made an impassioned plea to the Washington administration to be 'flexible, open and gracious'. His interview with the New York Times has raised some eyebrows in Warsaw.

Before the breakdown of Yugoslavia, Slovenian companies relied to a large extend on trade and business with Serbia, as former Yugoslavia used to be the main market for Slovenian companies. After the fall of former Yugoslavia, business with Serbia Montenegro declined due to the new political and economic situation. Now many years later, Slovenian companies are keen on spreading business in Serbia again.

Slovenia is a small country but with a swag of world record breakers - from marathón swimmers to runners like Jolanda Ceplak. Now another Slovene has added his name to the record books - three months ago Matevz Lenarcic started his solo flight in an ultra-light plane without additional support - from Slovenia over Siberia across the Bering Strait to Alaska, Canada, Iceland and England and back to Slovenia where he landed a week ago.

The Czech Republic has been rocked this week by an unprecedented case in which police say six boys - the youngest of them only 11 - brutally killed an elderly woman. As Czechs come to terms with the shocking crime, questions have been raised about how to deal with young offenders.

On August 31st, 24 years ago in Gdansk the Polish authorities signed an accord with striking shipyard workers which became known as the "August Agreement" and in effect signalled the beginning of the end of communism. The day also became symbolic in Poland for united effort which could topple walls - which brought forth the first free trade union in the eastern bloc, Solidarity - and which did change the world:

The Hungarian Olympic team returned from Athens with quite a medal collection - 8 gold, 6 silver and 3 bronze medals. But the haul could have been bigger if two athletes, hammer thrower Adrian Annus and discus thrower Robert Fazekas were not stripped of their medals for breaching doping regulations. Along with these two, three Hungarian weightlifters were also excluded for doping offences.

The European Commission says it wants member states to have more flexibility in framing their budgets. It's proposing changes to what's known as the Growth and Stability Pact - set up to defend the euro's stability. But the growth part of the pact seems to have got lost along the way. Western Europe lags far behind the US and many Asian countries in economic growth. But new EU members from east and central Europe have high growth figures.