THE NEW YORK TIMES. John T. Edge continues his journey through American cuisine and its ongoing evolution. Yesterday he visited the northern reaches of West Virginia and stopped in Clarksburg, a town where over 40% of the residents claim some Italian ancestry. In the early 1900s - Edge writes - West Virginia coal companies sought “a more docile, controllable work force than their American-born counterparts.” They recruited Italian immigrants in large numbers, especially from Calabria; but they soon found out, to their bitter disappointment, that these laborers "were just as inclined, if not more so, toward union affiliation and action." Among the many legacies of that massive Italian influx was, besides class struggle, "a hybridized food that owed as much to West Virginia as it did to Calabria." (Read the article)

ANSA. Cheesemakers in a small town near Naples beat their own record on Sunday by making the world's longest ever braid of mozzarella. The team of 40 mozzarella makers from the town of Sala Consilina churned and twisted a weave 78.8m long and 10cm thick winning their third Guinness World Record in three years. (Read the article)

ANSA. Giuseppe Tornatore's Sicilian epic Baaria was picked Tuesday as Italy's candidate for next year's foreign film Oscar. ''I'm very happy but also intimidated...it's a big responsibility to defend the Italian colours because every country is represented by interesting films, there is so much variety,'' said Tornatore, who won the Oscar in 1990 with Nuovo Cinema Paradiso. (Read the article)