Ukraine and Sicily

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As summer turns into chilly autumn in eastern Ukraine, there is no sign that the government in Kiev will regain control over the area any time soon. Paul Adams finds that instead, the region is heading towards the twilight status of barely recognised Russian satellites like South Ossetia and Abkhazia. In Sicily, Antonia Quirke meets a man who at the age of 85 still earns his daily bread by mending pans, in a cave. But elsewhere on the island, and in Italy at large, the pervasive corruption and abuse of public funds that the country is notorious for, appears to be undiminished, ranging from extortion of "protection" money by the mafia, to the awarding of spurious government jobs. (Photo: A man looks out of a window in war-damaged building in Donetsk: Credit: Darko Vojinovic/AP)