Giglio, Italy
Rescue for sale: As divers found more bodies trapped in the wreckage of the Costa Concordia this week, prosecutors were investigating reports that greedy crew members sold seats on the first life boats to rich Russians for fistfuls of cash. “I went to the boats as I saw them coming in, expecting to see women, children, and the injured,” said Franca Anichini, a resident of the island of Giglio. “All I saw were healthy men and elegant women in evening gowns who were speaking Russian.” Divers recovered a 16th victim from the ship this week, and continued to search for 17 people who were still missing.
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Croatia opts for EU: Croatians have voted to join the European Union, delivering a greater than expected yes vote of around 66 percent in a referendum this week. The vote means that the nation of 4.5 million people is set to become the EU’s 28th member state in July 2013. Though turnout was disappointingly low, the result came as a relief to EU officials in Brussels, who had feared Croatian voters might spurn membership in the midst of the EU’s worst crisis ever. Croatia will become the second ex-Yugoslav state to join the EU, following Slovenia, which joined in 2004; many analysts think it will be at least a decade before other former Yugoslavian states like Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina are admitted, if at all.