8 theSun | TUESDAY APRIL 7 2009

news without borders

A damaged street in L’Aquila

following the earthquake yesterday.

100 dead as strong

quake hits Italy
L’AQUILA (Italy): A powerful
earthquake struck central Italy as
residents slept early yesterday, kill-
ing at least 100 people and making
up to 50,000 homeless.
“Some towns in the area have
been virtually destroyed in their
entirety,” a somber Gianfranco
Fini, speaker of the lower house of
parliament, said before the chamber
observed a moment of silence.
The number of “confirmed” deaths
“We managed to escape with
things falling all around us. Every-
thing was shaking, furniture falling.
I don’t remember ever seeing any-
thing like this in my life.”
Luca Spoletini, a Civil Protection
Department spokesman, said the
quake may have made up to 50,000
people homeless. Some 26 cities and
towns were seriously damaged.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
declared a national emergency, which

has risen to 100, the Italian all-news
channel Sky TG-24 quoted an emer-
gency services spokesman as saying.
Most of the dead were in L’Aquila,
a 13th-century mountain city 100km
east of Rome, and surrounding towns
and villages in the Abruzzo region.
Houses, historic churches and
other buildings were demolished in
the worst quake to hit Italy in nearly
30 years. Hundreds of people were
injured and some 15,000 buildings
declared off limits.
“I woke up hearing what sounded
like a bomb,” said Angela Palumbo,
87, said as she walked on a street in
L’Aquila.
would free up funds for aid and re-
building. Pope Benedict said he was
saying a special prayer for the victims.
Older houses and buildings made
of stone, particularly in outlying vil-
lages that have not seen much resto-
ration, collapsed like straw houses.
Hospitals appealed for help from
doctors and nurses throughout Italy.
The stench of gas filled some parts of
the mountain towns and villages as
mains ruptured.
Residents of Rome, which is rarely
hit by seismic activity, were woken by
the quake, which rattled furniture and
swayed lights in most of central Italy.
It struck shortly after 3.30am (9.30am
in Malaysia) and registered
between 5.8 and 6.3 magnitude.
“When the quake hit, I rushed
out to my father’s house and opened
the main door and everything had
collapsed. My father is surely dead.
I called for help but no one was
around,” said Camillo Berardi in
L’Aquila.
Rubble was strewn throughout
the city of
68,000 people and nearby towns,
blocking roads and hampering res-
cue teams.
Old women wailed and residents
armed with nothing but bare hands
helped firefighters and rescue work-
ers tear through the rubble
Weeks before the disaster, an Ital-
ian scientist had predicted a major
quake around L’Aquila, based on
concentrations of radon gas around
EPAPIX
seismically active areas.
Seismologist Gioacchino Giuliani
was reported to police for “spreading
alarm” and was forced to remove
his findings from the Internet. Italy’s
Civil Protection Agency reassured lo-
cals at the end of March that tremors
being felt were “absolutely normal”
for a seismic area.
The quake was the latest and
strongest in a series to hit the
L’Aquila area on Sunday and yester-
day. – Agencies

Taiwan team invents

earthquake sensing tool
TAIPEI: A research team at Taiwan’s
top university has rolled out a tiny
low-budget device that can sense
earthquakes within 30 seconds,
enough time to issue crucial disaster
warnings, the lead inventor said
yesterday.
The metal tool the size of a tape
deck can detect an oncoming quake’s
speed and acceleration in time to
estimate its eventual magnitude and
warn trains to slow down or natural
gas companies to shut off supplies,
said Wu Yih-min, a researcher at the
National Taiwan University Depart-
ment of Geosciences.
Local The tool is more precise than
Counsel: similar technology used overseas,
and could cost as little as T$10,000
Tiger park (RM1117) once it reaches the market,
– respect said Wu, whose skeleton research
ownership team invented the tool after about five
years of study.
rights “We can tell within 30 seconds
pg 11 whether it’s going to be a big or small
quake,” Wu told reporters.
“We can sense the scale and how
much damage it’s likely to cause.”
The tool, which should be fastened
to a place unlikely to be shaken by
forces other than earthquakes, uses
a chip that costs just a few US dollars,
Wu said.
Schools, railway systems and nu-
clear power plants would benefit from
the technology, said Kuo Kai-wen,
seismological centre director with
Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau,
which helped to test its device.
But before it can be used, research-
ers must figure out how to link it to
computerised alert systems, Kuo
said.
The university has not yet applied
for a patent, Wu said. Taiwan is prone
to earthquakes, logging 20 minor ones
in the past 2½ weeks.
In May 2008, a 7.9 magnitude
quake hit Sichuan province of south-
west China, killing about 70,000 peo-
ple and leaving more than 10 million
homeless. – Reuters

UK sex offenders to
take lie detector tests
LONDON: Sex offenders in Britain
will be forced to take lie detector tests
as a condition of probation on release
from prison, the Justice Ministry said
on Sunday. Twenty-five offenders
have been chosen to take part in a
three-year pilot project that starts
tomorrow.
Justice Minister David Hanson
said 350-450 offenders are expected to
be tested over the next three years and
those who refuse could be returned
to prison.
“The tests will help us determine
whether the polygraph can be a use-
ful additional tool in the management
of sex offenders, in order to protect the
public,” Hanson said in a statement.
Professor Don Grubin, who will
carry out the tests, said they were
part of a package of measures aimed
at stopping re-offending.
“Disclosures made during
polygraph examinations, as well as
conclusions drawn from passed or
failed examinations, allow probation
officers and the police to intervene to
reduce risk,” he said.
“It is also aimed at enhancing the
cooperation of offenders with supervi-
sion, helping them to focus on, and
avoid, the sorts of behaviours that
make re-offending more likely.”
The ministry said each polygraph
session will take between 90 minutes
and two hours and will follow an
interview during which the subject
will be told the questions they will be
asked so they can make any relevant
disclosures beforehand.
After the polygraph session, the
subject will be told the results of the
test and asked to account for any
failures. – Reuters