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Choc-a-block: Liquid chocolate leak envelops German street

Tara John, CNN
(CNN) — In a scene that could be straight out of a children’s book, around a ton of liquid chocolate flowed out of a factory and caked a street in a west German town on Monday.

Firefighters said a storage tank overflowed at DreiMeister’s chocolate factory in Westönnen, a suburb of the town of Werl, running out of the gates and solidifying on the chilly sidewalk.

“About a ton of chocolate ran out into the yard and from there onto the street, ” a spokesman for the Werl fire brigade said in a statement. “A ten-square-meter choco-pancake formed,” the statement added.

Firefighters then worked to remove the chocolate, prying the “sweet danger with shovels and muscle power,” the brigade wrote.

DreiMeister’s boss Markus Luckey told German newspaper Soester Anzeiger that if the spill happened closer to Christmas it “would have been a disaster.”

Luckey added that the factory would be back in action on Wednesday.

According to the paper, around 25 firefighters were on scene to help with the cleanup.

A specialist company was brought in to assist after the incident and the brigade assured locals that a chocolate-free Christmas would not be “imminent in Werl.”

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Pope Leo calls for dialogue over conflict, says young Catholics are a sign of hope

SAN MARINO (AP) — Pope Leo XIV used a visit to the tiny landlocked San Marino and a major Catholic gathering in the Italian city of Rimini on Saturday to issue one of his strongest appeals yet against war, polarization and social division, urging believers to foster dialogue and friendship in a fractured world. Speaking to tens of thousands in Rimini, Leo warned against a culture that “rearms minds, words and nations” and argued that Christians must respond with mercy, encounter and a commitment to peace. He also delivered a message of encouragement to young Catholics, telling them they are “a sign that the future is promising, and not a threat!” Earlier, in San Marino, Leo addressed local authorities of the world’s oldest surviving republic and reflected on the legacy of Saints Marino and Leone, whom he credited with helping create a society rooted in freedom, mutual respect and community.
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