The people of Lithuania, the biggest of the three Baltic states, are the first former Soviet subjects to vote to join the European Union.

It's not often you see elderly church-going ladies baking chocolate cakes for prostitutes working the streets at night. But in Bristol that is exactly what's happening-with remarkable results.

'La Marelle' is French for hopscotch, one of the oldest children's games still in use, going back to ancient Greece and beyond.

The atmosphere at the Portofranco centre in Milan is ideal for young people who don't feel comfortable at school. Opened in November 2000, it provides help with homework and a quiet place to study, consult books or use computers.

Mary Lean meets the British World War II veterans who are calling for reconciliation with Japan.

Jacky Brandt is 'not like other bosses'.

Eastern Europe came a little closer for hundreds of British pupils as a result of a chance encounter between Mariana Zaharieva and school-teacher Howard Grace last summer. Mariana and her husband Angel Zahariev from Bulgaria were attending a conference on `Shaping the New Europe' in Caux, Switzerland, when they met Grace. He had been taking a play he had written to schools around Britain, to encourage sixth-formers to think beyond themselves.

‘The best time of our lives' was how young participants described a six-week training course: `Equipping oneself for a lifetime'. The course was held this spring at Moral Re-Armament's Asia Plateau centre in the spectacular scenery of India's Western Ghats mountain range.

Last November marked the centenary of Japan's parliamentary system. Yet politics has become a bad word in the country after a series of scandals involving senior politicians.

Pakistan's opposition leader and former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, greets Dr Charis Waddy at the launching of the third edition of Dr Waddy's book, The Muslim Mind. Also present were the Pakistan High Commissioner, Dr Humayun Khan, as well as academics, university lecturers, community leaders and representatives of Britain's 1.8 million Muslim population.