Earthquake scientists fear Italian trial Shakey ground An
Australian seismologist says this week's trial of Italian
scientists for failing to warn of a devastating earthquake could
muzzle experts from sharing their knowledge in the future. A
government official and six scientists, including Dr Enzo
Boschi, the former director of Italy's prestigious National
Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology, are accused of
manslaughter in a case that some see as an unfair indictment of
science. The defendants are on trial for giving overly
reassuring information in the lead up to the L'Aquila
earthquake, which killed more than 300 people in central Italy
in 2009. According to the indictment, the seven are suspected
"of having provided an approximative, generic and ineffective
assessment of seismic activity risks as well as incomplete,
imprecise and contradictory information." Prosecutors say
residents around the city of L'Aquila in the mountainous Abruzzo
region should have been warned to flee their homes in the days
be