Wednesday, November 11, 2009 PARIS: Award-winning French chocolatier Patrick Roger is commemorating the fall of communism with a 15m long and 900kg chocolate reproduction of the Berlin Wall. Roget has been building the chocolate wall in sections over the past four weeks in his studio outside of Paris. They bear the hallmarks of the original wall with uncanny chocolate replicas of the drawings like "the fraternal kiss" between the then East German leader Eric Honecker and the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. The wall is entirely made of black chocolate, the graffiti spray composed of coco-butter and artificial colouring. The chocolate sections of the wall are already on display in four of his French chocolate shops. On Monday, Roget will commemorate the fall of the wall by smashing his own chocolate incarnation in his flagship shop on Paris' Left Bank and the public will have a chance at joining in and enjoying the sweet taste of freedom. Monday marks 20 years since the Berlin Wall was pulled down, leading to the reunification of Germany. The German capital had been divided among the victorious European allies at the end of World War II and quickly became a symbol of the Cold War.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
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