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North Korea

Kiev Crackdown, N. Korean "Provocation", Crimean Dolphins

Exclusive glimpse at North Korea's Masik Ryong ski resort
Exclusive glimpse at North Korea's Masik Ryong ski resort
Worldcrunch

KIEV CRACKDOWN ON FAR RIGHT
Ukrainian police launched a wave of arrests against the far-right nationalist group Right Sector, after members threatened to avenge the death of their leader yesterday, The Moscow Timesreports. According to The Washington Post, a senior member of the group described it as a “counterrevolutionary activity” that they cannot accept. An unnamed source told Ria Novosti that the plans included “a police sweep of Kiev’s Independence Square,” where ultranationalists groups are still said to be gathered. Last week, Russian daily Kommersant reported on an ugly incident involving right-wing parliament members roughing up a television executive. Read about it in English here.

OBAMA IN EUROPE, EYE ON UKRAINE
President Barack Obama is in Brussels, where he is expected to hold meetings with EU and NATO officials. According to Voice of America, he will urge NATO partners to “provide assistance to the Ukrainian government.” The meeting with EU representatives, originally due to focus on the Free Trade Agreement between the two regions, will likely be dominated by the Ukrainian crisis. The BBC explains more on the focus of Obama’s trip in Europe, which continues to Rome on Thursday where he will meet with Pope Francis and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

DEATH TOLL OF WASHINGTON STATE MUDSLIDE RISES TO 24
Authorities in Washington state confirmed that 10 more bodies have been found in the debris field near Oso, taking the total number of victims of Saturday’s mudslide to 24, the newspaper in Everett Washington, The Daily Herald reports. A team of more than 200 rescue workers is continuing to search for dozens of others still reported missing.

NORTH KOREA FIRES TWO MISSILES
North Korea test-fired two ballistic missiles into the sea early today, hours after delegations from South Korea, Japan and the U.S. met in the Netherlands to discuss how to deal with Pyongyang, Yonhap news agency reports. Washington and Seoul officials described the launch as “a provocation”, with South Korea’s Defense Ministry spokesman explaining that the missiles are “capable of hitting not only most of Japan but also Russia and China." Japanese representatives also expressed concern but said Tokyo had no plans to suspend bilateral talks with Pyongyang.
Meanwhile, some in North Korea are focusing on other projects ...

WORLDCRUNCH-TO-GO
Writing in Chinese newspaper Caixin, Zhang Hong and Wang Ling urge leaders in Beijing to take an active role in helping to resolve the crisis in Ukraine:... At this point, a weighty and dedicated mediator could play an extraordinary role. No country is more suited than China to playing this role. China could consider sending a special envoy to Moscow, Kiev or even Brussels and Washington to find a solution acceptable to all parties.” Read the full article: Can China Be The Bridge Between Russia And The West?

PAKISTAN IN SECRET MEETING WITH THE TALIBAN
A team of representatives from Pakistan’s government are to hold a meeting later today with Taliban leaders,AP reports. This is the latest in a series of attempts to reach a peace agreement and end the violence in the country that has cost hundreds of civilian lives.

SATELLITES SPOT 122 OBJECTS IN SEARCH FOR MH370
Malaysia's Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein announced that French satellites had captured images of 122 objects in the South Indian Ocean that could potentially be from Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, the BBC reports.

CATALONIA INDEPENDENCE VOTE RULED UNCONSTITUTIONAL
Spain’s Constitutional Court has ruled that the planned independence referendum in the eastern region of Catalonia is unconstitutional, Barcelona’s newspaper La Vanguardia reports. The judges argued that the whole Spanish population is sovereign and that one region alone cannot decide to break up the “indissoluble unity” of the nation. The decision is a blow to the hopes of Catalan authorities who called for a referendum to be held in early November, amid increasing support for the region to break away from Madrid. The reasons behind the Catalan hopes of independence are explained in this Le Monde/Worldcrunch article.

60,000
A French guillotine, “in working order”, goes under the hammer. Expected price: 60,000 euros. Any takers?

ZOO’D
Crimea’s combat dolphins are now officially Russian. Because animal-loving Putin.

MY GRAND-PÈRE’S WORLD

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Society

Genoa Postcard: A Tale Of Modern Sailors, Echos Of The Ancient Mariner

Many seafarers are hired and fired every seven months. Some keep up this lifestyle for 40 years while sailing the world. Some of those who'd recently docked in the Italian port city of Genoa, share a taste of their travels that are connected to a long history of a seafaring life.

A sailor smokes a cigarette on the hydrofoil Procida

A sailor on the hydrofoil Procida in Italy

Daniele Frediani/Mondadori Portfolio via ZUMA Press
Paolo Griseri

GENOA — Cristina did it to escape after a tough breakup. Luigi because he dreamed of adventures and the South Seas. Marianna embarked just “before the refrigerator factory where I worked went out of business. I’m one of the few who got severance pay.”

To hear their stories, you have to go to the canteen on Via Albertazzi, in Italy's northern port city of Genoa, across from the ferry terminal. The place has excellent minestrone soup and is decorated with models of the ships that have made the port’s history.

There are 38,000 Italian professional sailors, many of whom work here in Genoa, a historic port of call that today is the country's second largest after Trieste on the east coast. Luciano Rotella of the trade union Italian Federation of Transport Workers says the official number of maritime workers is far lower than the reality, which contains a tangle of different laws, regulations, contracts and ethnicities — not to mention ancient remnants of harsh battles between shipowners and crews.

The result is that today it is not so easy to know how many people sail, nor their nationalities.

What is certain is that every six to seven months, the Italian mariner disembarks the ship and is dismissed: they take severance pay and after waits for the next call. Andrea has been sailing for more than 20 years: “When I started out, to those who told us we were earning good money, I replied that I had a precarious life: every landing was a dismissal.”

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