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Egypt

ARABICA - A Daily Shot Of What the Arab World is Saying/Hearing/Sharing

ARABICA - A Daily Shot Of What the Arab World is Saying/Hearing/Sharing
Kristen Gillespie


A R A B I C A
ارابيكا

>


SYRIAN ARMY
*AFP Arabic reports at least 16 Syrians were believed killed as the army pushed into new villages in northwest Syria, close to the Turkish border. "The soldiers deployed in the villages and began raids," said Ramy Abdel Rahman, the head of the Syrian-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Abdel Rahman said the government conducted a fresh round of opposition arrests on Wednesday, targeting members of the Socialist Union Party in Aleppo and the Kurdish Future Movement in the northeast.

SYRIAN DIPLOMACY
*The British government called in the Syrian ambassador to the UK, Samy Khiyami, after credible reports emerged of the Syrian government threatening dissidents living in Britain. The British government is concerned that embassy employees are using "methods of intimidation" against Syrian exiles in the UK.

SYRIAN RESISTANCE
*A video posted to YouTube called "We need you" is a dramatic recruitment ad to call on Syrians to help overthrow the Assad regime. "God's will was written and the many obstacles were overcome," the stark white writing reads against a black background. "The first obstacle: It was said the people would not stand up because they only know submission. But a group of heroes surprised the whole world and stood up." In between the sentences, the editors cut in graphic footages of protesters being beaten and shot along with massive crowds chanting that the government should fall. At 2:36 into the video, crowds pull down from its plinth a statue of Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father who ruled Syria for nearly 30 years, longer than any other leader for more than a millennium. "We will not submit – that time is over," the writing reads. "No fear after today. The Syrian people are one," it says.

SYRIAN LAST CHANCES
*@SyriaParliament says, "Syrians: If this gang of thugs rules Syria, they'll come back more corrupt and more criminal than before, and the security services will be even harsher. This is your last chance."

EGYPTIAN DEJA VU
*Al Hayat reports that 590 people were injured during clashes between security forces and protesters in Tahrir Square. Protesters are demanding the ruling military leadership accelerate prosecutions of police and security officers accused of brutality.

AND HEZOBOLLAH?
*Thamer bin Hamad from Kuwait tweets, "Hezbollah will become a spider without legs if the bloody Syrian Baath Party falls."

June 30, 2011

photo credit: illustir

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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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