Today's Story Line

The world watched this weekend as Norwegian divers valiantly tried to rescue the submariners trapped on the Kursk. Now, with word that all those aboard perished and that the Norwegians were able to open the hatch in one day after Russia couldn't do it in a week, the public is demanding accountability.

"Subcomandante Marcos" and his small band of Zapatistas marched onto the world stage in 1994, demanding attention to the marginalized status of their state's majority Indian population. Six years after the initial uprising, there still is no signed agreement with the government. But many say, with the new election, there is more hope for peace in Chiapas.

Faye Bowers Deputy world editor

REPORTERS ON THE JOB..

*REPORTER QUESTIONED: Every morning, the Monitor's Fred Weir goes to a neighborhood Moscow restaurant for breakfast, where all the waitresses know him. "Sometimes when it's not busy, some of the young women just sit and chat about the weather, their boyfriends, everyday conversational subjects," Fred says. "They have never shown the slightest inclination to talk politics; in fact, they avoid it."

But he was stunned this week to find the sinking of the Kursk and the surrounding controversy is all they want to talk about. "In the past several days, two or three of them have asked me intensely: 'What do you think of our president? Does he have a right to be on vacation at such a time?' "

*NO HIDING A GRINGO: The Monitor's Howard LaFranchi, on assignment in Chiapas, says that while walking down the street in San Cristobl de las Casas, a popular foreign-tourist destination, he was handed a flier in English for a restaurant claiming to specialize in "Pre-Hispanic food." "If this were California I'd assume they meant ketchup instead of salsa, and white bread instead of tortillas with beans," Howard says. Turns out the restaurant serves dishes dating from before the arrival of the Spanish in Mexico.

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