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A new tradition was born on Friday in Hungary where from now on, May 21st shall be known as Opportunity Day. The first official celebration of the day took place on Friday in a Budapest park, where you could enjoy performances by a variety of minority groups, but where the audience also had the opportunity to find out more about equal opportunities in today's Hungary.

The coverage in a Polish newspaper of the death of a prominent Polish war correspondent Waldemar Milewicz has sparked off heated debate in Poland on ethical standards in journalism and on the Polish mission in Iraq in general.

In Budapest, ombudsmen from about 20 European countries held their general assembly this week. The ombudsman is a parliamentary institution which is protecting the rights of citizens against misuse by the state administration, or any kind of administration. This institution is exactly ten years old in Hungary. At the Budapest conference, special attention was paid to the representation and protection of ethnic and national minorities.

Simon Robinson is a renowned conductor from Liverpool, who has been living and working in Slovenia since the late 1970s. After graduating in music from the Surrey University in the summer of 1978, he conducted at a festival of Armenian music in London, where he was discovered by representatives of the Maribor Opera in Slovenia and was offered a job as assistant conductor and pianist. In October 1978, he arrived in Maribor.

Photos and videos in the media of torture and execution - the most recent the beheading of a 26 year-old US civilian in Iraq - have been shocking readers and viewers all over the world, questioning how far the media should be allowed to go to cover the realities of war and conflict. Vit Pohanka is one of the three Czech journalists who were kidnapped by rebel Iraqi insurgents last month but were freed just under a week later.

There was great joy, cheers, mass singing, but also disappointment and tears over Slovakia's lost battle for bronze at the World Ice Hockey Championship in Prague last week. At one a.m. the National Uprising Square in Bratislava was packed with thousands of people. Even though the national team came in fourth, fans patiently waited for their idols and cheered with flags, slogans and hockey anthems.

"If you have no work, you have no life," says sixty year-old Wieslawa who has been working as a cleaning lady in Brussels for several years now. No, she hasn't got a permit but with unemployment running high in her home town of Biala Podlaska, she says she has no choice:

Just days after Slovenia joined the EU it was obvious that traffic was a problem in need of attention - especially along the border with Croatia where long delays are common. And with traffic volume expected to increase, Slovenia is hoping that joining the EU will help clear up some of those jams. Ksenija Samardzija-Matul reports:

Wednesday 12th May sees the beginning of one of Central Europe's major classical music events - the 59th Prague Spring Festival - bringing together top orchestras, ensembles and soloists from around the world. This year the festival is special: last Saturday was the centenary of the great Czech composer Antonin Dvorak's death. Radio Prague's David Vaughan spoke to the festival director Roman Belor, for a taste of this year's special Prague Spring.

Slovakia became a member of the EU on Saturday, May 1. Despite all the celebrations she could have experienced in Bratislava, Martina Grenova from Radio Slovakia International set off for a journey to the UK instead. Travelling by coach from the Czech town of Brno, she met a group of Slovaks and Czechs leaving their countries behind to find a job in Britain. Great Britain along with Ireland and Sweden have left their labour markets open for EU newcomers. On the 21 hour journey in an overcrowded bus, Martina realized that citizens of the new EU