Survivors of Italy's devastating earthquake had little to celebrate as Easter Sunday dawned yesterday after many salvaged what they could from their abandoned homes.
On Saturday, rescue workers said no one remained in the missing column as hundreds of the newly homeless, clutching empty bags and suitcases, waited to be escorted to their ruined homes.
Many refugees from the devastated town of L'Aquila voiced fears of looting following several arrests since the quake on Monday that claimed at least 293 lives, as shown by the latest police toll.
Some 600 police officers were patrolling the walled city founded in the 13th century, the capital of the Abruzzo region with a population of some 70,000.
“I want to find our two cats and pick up some clothes,” said Riccardo Copersini as he waited in line. “Anything else would be extra.”
Also in the line was Vincenzo Rizi, an engineering professor at L’Aquila’s university.
“We all need to rebuild our lives,” he said simply.
Engineers meanwhile began assessing the damage to the estimated 10,000 buildings hit by Monday’s earthquake and the European Commission said construction experts will arrive in the region early next week.
“It's really a difficult situation. It will take a long time,” said Gennaro Tornatore, a fire service chief coordinating rescues. “We're trying to get the situation under control. We’ve got 125 firefighters working on it.”
Strong aftershocks continued to jolt the region, where some 40,000 people have lost their homes. Local administration chief Massimiliano Cordeschi said 18,000 people had registered for inspections of their homes so far.
Italy's space agency, comparing satellite radar images taken before and after the earthquake, said on Saturday that the earth in the region of L’Aquila had shifted by up to 15cm.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was set to attend an Easter mass in L’Aquila yesterday and other masses were planned in the many tent camps set up in and around the city.
Easter Sunday, the most joyous day on the Christian calendar, celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ after his crucifixion.
At a mass funeral for the victims on Friday, Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone told survivors that Easter Sunday would “once again be a rebirth from the rubble for a people who have already suffered so many times.”
But at one of the tent camps near L'Aquila, 70-year-old Anna Parisse said she was not looking forward to the holiday in the current situation.
“Unfortunately, we're going to have to celebrate Easter here. It's not going to be the same. I want to be at home with my family,” Parisse said.
She also voiced skepticism about Berlusconi's promises of aid, saying: “I don't trust him ... He just says whatever comes into his head.”
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
RSS