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Venezuela

Chavez Goes To Cuba For More Cancer Treatment, Appoints Successor

BBC MUNDO (UK), EL NACIONAL, EL UNIVERSAL (Venezuela)

Worldcrunch

CARACAS- On Monday, the Venezuelan Minister for Communication and Information, Ernesto Villegas, tweeted that Hugo Chávez has returned to Cuba for a new operation for his cancer according to Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional.

BBC Mundo reports that despite a year and a half of treatment that included three surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatments, this is the first time that Hugo Chávez has suggested that he may not return, naming Vice-President Nicolás Maduro as his successor. Chávez has handled his cancer treatment with absolute secrecy until now and said that this new surgery is “absolutely essential”.

Chávez sought permission yesterday from the National Assembly to travel to Havana for an indefinite amount of time after finding more malignant cells in the same place as his cancer from last year, according to El Universal.

After being elected for a fourth term in October with 55% of the vote, Chávez is due to be inaugurated for another six years on January 10.

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food / travel

Pasta v. Fascists: How Italy's Staple Dish Became A Symbol Of Resistance

Pasta may not be considered controversial today, but it played an important role during Italy's fascist years, particularly in one family's celebration of community and liberation.

Photo of the Cervi family.

Photo of the Cervi family, whose seven children were shot by the Fascists on December 28, 1943, at the Reggio Emilia shooting range.

@comunisti_alla_ribalta via Instagram
Jacopo Fontaneto

ROME — Eighty years ago — on July 25, 1943 — the vote of no confidence by the Grand Council of Fascism, leading to Benito Mussolini's arrest, set off widespread celebrations. In Campegine, a small village in the Emilian province, the Cervi family celebrated in their own way: they brought 380 kilograms of pasta in milk cans to the town square and offered it to all the inhabitants of the village.

The pasta was strictly plain: macaroni dressed with butter and cheese, seen as more of a "festive dish" in that period of deprivation. As soon as the Cervi brothers learned about the arrest of Mussolini, they procured flour, borrowed butter and cheese from the dairy, and prepared kilos and kilos of pasta. They then loaded it onto a cart to distribute it to their fellow villagers. Pastasciutta (dry pasta) specifically regards dishes with noodles that are plated "dry", not in broth. That would disqualify soup, risotto, ravioli...

Even though pastasciutta is the most stereotypical type of pasta today, it had a complicated relationship with the government during Italy's fascist years.

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