A small earthquake with an epicentre 28 kilometres north of Monaco on Saturday evening caused a few dishes to rattle in Nice and the Principality, but no damage. The quake measured 3.8 on the Richter scale, according to the European Mediterranean seismological centre.
Meanwhile, satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo has unleashed a storm of criticism on social media for a cartoon depicting Italian earthquake victims as pasta dishes.
The cartoon, which features in its current issue, refers to the town of Amatrice, one of the areas hardest hit by the 6.2 magnitude earthquake eleven days ago. Amatrice is home to spaghetti all’amatriciana, a dish with ingredients including tomato sauce, and guanciale ham.
The offending image shows an injured man and a woman standing next to a pile of rubble from which feet can be seen. Each of the standing figures has been named after a pasta dish.
The bandaged man is shown under the words penne tomato sauce, a woman with burns is depicted as penne gratin, and bodies lying beneath layers of rubble as lasagne all beneath the heading “Earthquake Italian style”.
The cartoon, making the rounds on social media, has attracted huge criticism globally and in Italy it has made the pages of Italian national newspapers La Stampa and Courier della Serra.