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 The 6.3-magnitude earthquake that took place in Italy on April 6, 2009 killed 308 people in and around L'Aquila, which was largely reduced to rubble. |
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Seven scientists and other experts were indicted on manslaughter charges Wednesday for allegedly failing to sufficiently warn residents before a devastating earthquake that killed more than 300 people in central Italy in 2009. Defence lawyers condemned the charges, saying it's impossible to predict earthquakes. Seismologists have long concurred, saying the technology doesn't exist to predict a quake and that no major temblor has ever been foretold. Judge Giuseppe Romano Gargarella ordered the members of the national government's Great Risks commission, which evaluates potential for natural disasters, to go on trial in L'Aquila on Sept. 20. Italian media quoted the judge as saying the defendants "gave inexact, incomplete and contradictory information" about whether smaller tremors felt by L'Aquila residents in the six months before the April 6, 2009 quake should have constituted grounds for a quake warning. Specifically, prosecutors focused on a memo issued after a March 31, 2009 meeting of the Great Risks commission which was called because of mounting concerns about the months of seismic activity in the region. According to the commission's memo — issued one week before the big quake — the experts concluded that it was "improbable" that there would be a major quake though it added that one couldn't be excluded. Afterward, members of the commission gave reassuring interviews to local media stressing the impossibility of predicting quakes and that even six months worth of low-magnitude temblors was not unusual in the highly seismic region and didn't mean a big one was coming. In one now-infamous interview included in the prosecutors' case, commission member Bernardo De Bernardis of the national civil protection department responded to a question about whether residents should just sit back and relax with a glass of wine. "Absolutely, absolutely a Montepulciano doc," he responded, referring to a high-end red. "This seems important." Such a reassuring verdict by commission members "persuaded the victims to stay at home," La Repubblica newspaper quoted the indictment as saying. The 6.3-magnitude quake killed 308 people in and around the medieval town, which was largely reduced to rubble. Thousands of survivors lived in tent camps or temporary housing for months. (Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Website.) (Agencies) |
周三，意大利7名科學家、專家因2009年未能向居民發(fā)出地震警報而被控過失殺人罪。那場強震導致意大利中部300多人喪生。 科學家們的辯護律師譴責這一指控說，預測地震是根本無法做到的。長時間以來地震學家們一致認為，以目前的科學技術，還不能預測地震，而且人類從未準確預知過任何一次大地震。 法官約瑟佩?羅曼諾?加格瑞勒命令意大利政府的高風險委員會成員于9月20日在拉奎拉接受審判。該委員會負責評估發(fā)生自然災害的可能性。 意大利媒體援引法官的話說，被告?zhèn)儗τ诶用裨?009年4月6日的強震發(fā)生前6個月期間感到的小地震是否預示著大地震的到來“傳達了不準確、不完整、不一致的信息”。 檢察官還呈上了2009年3月31日高風險委員會召開會議后發(fā)布的備忘錄。這次會議就是因為連月來該地區(qū)地震活動頻繁引發(fā)民眾擔憂而召開的。 在該委員會于大地震一周前發(fā)布的這一備忘錄中，這些專家得出結論說，“不大可能”發(fā)生大地震，不過備忘錄還說，也不能完全排除發(fā)生大地震的可能性。 隨后，委員會成員在面向當?shù)孛襟w的訪談中強調(diào)，預測地震是不可能的，盡管六個月來多次發(fā)生小地震，但在這種地震多發(fā)區(qū)并不算反常，也不意味著即將發(fā)生一場大地震，讓民眾放寬心。 在檢察官作為呈堂證供的一段訪談中，委員會成員、國民保衛(wèi)部的伯納多?德?貝納蒂斯對于居民是否應該喝杯紅酒放松一下的問題做出了應答。這段訪談現(xiàn)在已變得臭名昭著。 他回答說：“當然，當然要喝一杯卓林普樂怡諾紅葡萄酒。這似乎還滿重要的。”他指的是一種高檔的紅葡萄酒。 《共和報》援引起訴書中的話說，委員會成員的這一寬慰人心的結論“說服受害者待在家中”。 這場6.3級地震導致這座中世紀城鎮(zhèn)內(nèi)外308人喪生，城內(nèi)大部分地區(qū)都成了一片廢墟。數(shù)千名幸存者連續(xù)幾個月都住在帳篷或臨時房屋里。 相關閱讀 （中國日報網(wǎng)英語點津 陳丹妮 編輯：馮明惠） |
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Vocabulary: seismologist: 地震學家 temblor: <美> 地震 prosecutor: a public official who charges somebody officially with a crime and prosecutes them in a court of law（公訴人；檢察官） memo: an official note from one person to another in the same organization（備忘錄） seismic: connected with or caused by earthquakes（地震的；地震引起的） reassuring: making you feel less worried or uncertain about something（令人感到寬慰的；令人放心的） sit back: to sit on something, usually a chair, in a relaxed position（舒舒服服地坐好；放松） verdict: a decision that you make or an opinion that you give about something, after you have tested it or considered it carefully （經(jīng)過檢驗或認真考慮后的）決定，結論，意見 |
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