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Geopolitics

Two Factory Fires Kill More Than 190 In Pakistan's Two Largest Cities

DAWN (Pakistan), TIMES OF INDIA (India), AL JAZEERA (Qatar)

Worldcrunch

KARACHIAt least 191 people were killed in two separate factory fires in the Pakistani cities of Karachi and Lahore.

Officials said Wednesday that 166 people where killed after a fire broke out in a factory in the coastal megalopolis of Karachi, and dozens of workers were hurt as they jumped out of windows.

Some 150 employees were working in the underwear manufacturing factory when the fire broke out late Tuesday, reports Pakistani daily Dawn.

Some 40 firefighting vehicles were needed to tackle the blaze and police said they were investing the cause of the fire. (See video below)

It is the most deadly industrial disaster in decades to hit the city of Karachi, which has a population approaching 20 million, adds the Times of India.

Earlier in the day, a fire swept through a four-story shoe factory in the eastern city of Lahore, killing at least 25 workers.

It broke out when workers tried to start their generator after a power failure. Sparks from the generator made contact with chemicals used to make the shoes, igniting the blaze, reports Al Jazeera.

The factory was illegally set up in a residential part of the city and the main escape route was blocked, trapping many of the workers who died by suffocation.

In a statement, Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf expressed shock and grief over the deaths in Pakistan"s two largest cities.

Factory fires are common in the country as most buildings lack fire alarms or emergency exits.

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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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