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eyes on the U.S.

Ex-CIA Chief Petraeus Apologizes For Affair In First Public Speech

WASHINGTON POST (U.S.), BBC, SKY NEWS (UK)

Worldcrunch

LOS ANGELES - In his first speech since resigning in November, former CIA director David Petraeus has apologized to those he says he let down with the extramarital affair that lead to one of the most sudden and dramatic public falls from grace in recent memory.

In his speech Tuesday night at the University of Southern California -- to an audience of some 600, including many veterans and his own wife -- Petraeus said: “I know that I can never fully assuage the pain that I inflicted on those closest to me and on a number of others," the Washington Post reported.

[rebelmouse-image 27086535 alt="""" original_size="710x509" expand=1]

Petraeus being sworn in as CIA Director in 2011 by Joe Biden. Photo by CIA

“Please allow me to begin my remarks this evening by reiterating how deeply I regret - and apologize for - the circumstances that led me to resign from the CIA and caused such pain for my family, friends and supporters.”

[rebelmouse-image 27086536 alt="""" original_size="250x240" expand=1]

Gen. Petraeus and Paula Broadwell in 2011. Photo by Bdell555

The sex scandal involved his biographer, Paula Broadwell -- a married army reserve intelligence officer -- who sent emails to another woman, Jill Kelley, whom she accused of also having an affair with the General, wrongly believing that she was a love rival. Petraeus resigned after an FBI investigation was launched.

General Petraeus is the military leader credited with reshaping the U.S. counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan, reports Sky News. He took over as head of the CIA in 2011, but insisted on hanging up his uniform before taking over the civilian spy agency.

According to the BBC, Gen. Petraeus said that he hoped his experience “can be instructive to others who stumble or indeed fall as far as I did. One learns, after all, that life doesn’t stop with such a mistake. It can, and must, go on.”

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Society

Italy's Right-Wing Government Turns Up The Heat On 'Gastronationalism'

Rome has been strongly opposed to synthetic foods, insect-based flours and health warnings on alcohol, and aggressive lobbying by Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government against nutritional labeling has prompted accusations in Brussels of "gastronationalism."

Dough is run through a press to make pasta

Creation of home made pasta

Karl De Meyer et Olivier Tosseri

ROME — On March 23, the Italian Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, Francesco Lollobrigida, announced that Rome would ask UNESCO to recognize Italian cuisine as a piece of intangible cultural heritage.

On March 28, Lollobrigida, who is also Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's brother-in-law, promised that Italy would ban the production, import and marketing of food made in labs, especially artificial meat — despite the fact that there is still no official request to market it in Europe.

Days later, Italian Eurodeputy Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of fascist leader Benito Mussolini and member of the Forza Italia party, which is part of the governing coalition in Rome, caused a sensation in the European Parliament. On the sidelines of the plenary session, Sophia Loren's niece organized a wine tasting, under the slogan "In Vino Veritas," to show her strong opposition (and that of her government) to an Irish proposal to put health warnings on alcohol bottles. At the end of the press conference, around 11am, she showed her determination by drinking from the neck of a bottle of wine, to great applause.

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