Russia: Soldiers Missing - Up to 15,000 Russian troops are estimated to be currently deployed in Ukraine. While Moscow denies that any Russian soldiers are fighting in eastern Ukraine, wives and mothers are desperate to know where their loves ones are. Civil rights activists are helping them to either remove their sons to safety, or bury those who have already fallen in the conflict. A cemetery in Pskov is the last resting place of two paratroopers who the authorities claim were killed in an accident. Reporters investigating the story were intimidated and chased away by men in hooded tops. Ukraine has presented captured Russian recruits, but Moscow remains mum when relatives pose requests for information. Italy: Refugee Haven - One year ago several hundred refugees from North Africa drowned when the boat carrying them across the Mediterranean sank off the coast of Lampedusa. The Italian island has come to symbolize a continuing series of refugee tragedies. Governments in Europe are at a loss as to how to deal with the constant stream of migrants, although at least more people are now being saved on the high seas. The Italian navy and the EU's Frontex border security agency picked up over 90,000 seaborne refugees in the space of a year. Most plan to travel further north to Germany, France or Sweden, but the sheer volume of refugees on Lampedusa is putting the island under strain. The days when Lampedusa was known primarily as a tourist destination are long gone. France: Rats Plague Paris - Pest controllers currently have their hands full in Paris, trying to cope with the 10 million rats now living in the city. The explosion in the rodent population is being blamed on construction work. The rats, loathed by tourists and locals alike, have expanded their habitat from the traditional sewers to now include the catacombs too. Paris thrives on its reputation for glamour and is desperate to avoid being associated with a plague of rats - despite the positive PR work done for the species by the animated film "Ratatouille". Greece: Press Freedom - Last year the government shut down state broadcaster ERT at a cost of almost 2,700 jobs. Some 400 journalists refused to accept the austerity measure, however, and continued to broadcast unofficially as a pirate station. The TV and radio producers soon found new premises in Athens. In other cities their colleagues have occupied their former workplaces, but could be evicted any day. The idealists see their message as a vital and critical voice in the Greek media landscape.
