Earthquake damages part of Pompeii site in southern Italy
ROME (Reuters) -A minor earthquake in southern Italy has caused the partial collapse of a wall and a portion of a vault at the Pompeii archaeological site, authorities said on Thursday.
The quake with a magnitude of 3.2 on Thursday morning was the latest in a series of tremors centred on the nearby Campi Flegrei super volcano close to the city of Naples.
The affected area of Pompeii had been damaged in a major earthquake that hit southern Italy in 1980 and had since been shored up and restored.
There were no frescoes or movable relics in the damaged structure and no one was injured.
Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the site's director, said checks were being carried out to ensure no other areas had been affected.
The ancient settlement of Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
(Writing by Keith Weir, editing by Giselda Vagnoni)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
NASA says no decision yet on whether next Boeing Starliner flight will carry crew
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The earliest Boeing's Starliner spacecraft could fly again is early 2026, NASA said on Friday, as it evaluates whether to put humans on board one year after propulsion system issues on the capsule forced its debut crew to stay on the International Space Station for roughly nine months.
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
Experts doubt FBI's claim that crop fungus smuggled by Chinese students is a threat
By Heather Schlitz CHICAGO (Reuters) -A biological sample that a Chinese researcher was accused of smuggling into the United States and that prosecutors cast as a "dangerous biological pathogen" is a common type of fungus already widespread in U.S. crop fields that likely poses little risk to food safety, experts said. On Tuesday, U.S. federal prosecutors accused two Chinese researchers of smuggling samples of the fungus Fusarium graminearum into the U.S., describing it as a potential agricultural terrorism weapon. Yunqing Jian, 33, a researcher at the University of Michigan's Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology has been charged in connection with allegations that she helped her boyfriend, Zunyong Liu, 34, smuggle the pathogen into the U.S. However, agriculture experts interviewed by Reuters this week said the fungus has been in the U.S. for more than a century, can be prevented by spraying pesticides, and is only dangerous if ingested regularly and in large quantities. "As a weapon, it would be a pretty ineffective one," said Jessica Rutkoski, a crop sciences professor, wheat breeder and geneticist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Rutkoski and other researchers said extensive testing for the fungus' toxin, widespread use of fungicides and the difficulty of intentionally creating an infection with the pathogen would make it a clumsy weapon. The U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI declined Reuters' request for comment. Since the 1900s, U.S. farmers have been battling the fungus, which causes Fusarium head blight, usually known as "scab," which often infects wheat, barley and other grains on farms during rainy years. The telltale pink streaks on the grain heads contain a toxic byproduct called vomitoxin, which is tested for and tightly controlled by grain elevators where farmers sell their crops. Constant testing and monitoring means that only negligible amounts of vomitoxin ever make it into the bread, pasta and cookies Americans eat, far below levels that would sicken a human, experts said. "We have a long history of managing epidemics of scab," said Andrew Friskop, professor and plant pathologist at North Dakota State University, noting that farmers have access to many tools to prevent and control the disease. Farmers began regularly spraying their fields with fungicide as early as the 1990s, and researchers have since developed multiple strains of fungus-resistant wheat. Plant experts said that it would be difficult to fully assess the risks posed by the samples without more information on the particular strain. But Rutkoski, whose research involves intentionally contaminating wheat with the fungus, said that she isn't always successful at infecting her test field's wheat with scab. She said the pathogen is difficult to control, and her lab has to strike the right balance of temperature and humidity to create an infection. In federal court in Detroit on Tuesday, Jian was charged with conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud the U.S., smuggling goods into the U.S., false statements and visa fraud. Jian did not comment on the charges, and the lawyer who represented her in court was not immediately available for comment. Liu could not be immediately reached for comment. The court scheduled Jian's bail hearing for June 13.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
SpaceX will decommission Dragon spacecraft, Musk says as feud with Trump escalates
(Reuters) -Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately, the billionaire said on Thursday in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's statement that the government should cancel Musk's federal contracts. NASA relies on SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station under a contract worth roughly $4.9 billion. The capsule is the only U.S. spacecraft capable of flying humans in orbit. Musk's statement marks a dramatic escalation in an intensifying fight with Trump that burst into public view this week, when Musk opposed the Trump administration's linchpin spending bill. Taking Dragon out of service would disrupt the ISS program, which involves dozens of countries under an international agreement signed over two decades ago. Russia's Soyuz system is the only other crewed spacecraft that sends astronauts to the ISS.
