Science

(ANSA) - Rome, November 6 - Two more victims of the H1N1 flu virus on Friday brought the death toll in Italy to 30 according to the Italian health ministry

Doctors said that both of the victims, a 55-year-old man near Venice and a 9-year-old girl in Campobasso, had serious health problems before coming down with the flu.

With over 13 people dying with the virus since Monday, this has been the deadliest week since Italy's first flu death in September.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 5 - The environment ministry on dismissed reports on Thursday that a wreck off the coast of Calabria was in fact a ship carrying toxic waste and not a World War I passenger vessel.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Italian weekly Espresso claimed that a research vessel sent by the ministry to investigate the wreck had in fact looked at the wrong ship.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 5 - The Mediterranean is a precious source of biodiversity that requires special protection, the Italian branch of environmental organization Greenpeace warned on Thursday.

A study by Greenpeace Italia, published at an international ministers meeting in Marrakech, highlighted the unique nature of the Mediterranean.

It pointed out that temperate and subtropical climates meet and combine in the Mediterranean, ''thereby producing elevated levels of biodiversity''.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 5 - Nearly eight in ten Italians recycle at home, according to a survey released Thursday by the the IPSOS research group.

According to the study, 78% of Italians said they recycled paper, plastic and glass on a regular basis, while 68% said they had no trouble finding reycling bins close to home.

In addition to household recyclers, 64% of Italians said they also recycle on vacation and more than half said they sorted waste at work.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 5 - Two Italian experts claim to have uncovered the ''real face'' of Queen Nefertiti of Egypt, following a close study of the 3,400-year-old bust held in Berlin.

CAT scans by ethnologist Franco Crevatin of Trieste University and cosmetics historian Stefano Anselmo revealed the lime and stucco outer layer hid an ''inner statue'' made of stone.

The concealed sculpture has a similar face to that of the beautiful, world-famous bust but with several key differences, the experts found.

(ANSA) - Milan, November 5 - The death toll from the H1N1 flu virus climbed to 25 on Thursday with the death of a seven year old girl near Milan.

Doctors said the girl, who suffered from a severe disability, was hospitalized last week with a case of pneumonia aggravated a flu infection.

The youngest of Italy's victims so far, the girl is the seventh flu victim in in two days and the third child to die with the virus since last weekend.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 4 - The family of an H1N1 flu victim who contracted the virus while being treated in hospital for chronic lung disease said Wednesday that doctors were to blame for death.

Chantal Carleo, an 18-year-old Puglia native was in Rome being treated for cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder which, among other symptoms, causes frequent lung infections, coughing and shortness of breath.

Carleo's sister, Silvia Pispico, said she was roomed with other patients and, a week later, started showing symptoms of the virus.

(corrects 'radiology assistant' for 'radiologist') (ANSA) - Rome, November 4 - A Rome radiology assistant became Italy's 20th victim of the H1N1 flu virus on Wednesday after a 13-year-old girl in northern Italy who died the same day.

Doctors said the man, 50, was in poor health before contracting the virus, which he'd been battling in hospital for several days.

Earlier on Wednesday, a 13-year-old girl with a congenital lung condition died of flu related causes in a hospital in Monza.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 4 - A Rome radiologist became Italy's 20th victim of the H1N1 flu virus on Wednesday after a 13-year-old girl in northern Italy who died the same day.

Doctors said the man, 50, was in poor health before contracting the virus, which he'd been battling in hospital for several days.

Earlier on Wednesday, a 13-year-old girl with a congenital lung condition died of flu related causes in a hospital in Monza.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 4 - Italy's death toll from the H1N1 flu virus rose to 19 on Wednesday when a 13-year-old girl died in a Monza hospital.

Doctors said the girl had congenital lung disease aggravated by a flu virus infection.

Yesterday, Junior Health Minister Ferruccio Fazio attempted to assuage fears created by the flu's first child victims in Italy, saying children were no more vulnerable to the virus than adults.

Three children with the virus have died this week, two of which had pre-existing health problems.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 4 - The solar wind that gives comets their tails and creates the Northern Lights is expanding like a bubble around the solar system, researchers with the Cassini-Huygens space mission announced Wednesday.

Based on data captured by the spacecraft's Italian-made antenna, the new study shatters a long-held theory about the solar wind whipping around the solar system like a comet, scientists said.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 4 - An Italian scientist has invented an environmentally friendly gel for restoring frescos.

The so-called 'eco-gel' is 97% water with only a tiny amount of oil-based solvent that gets deeper than conventional cleaners, Florence University chemistry professor Piero Baglioni says.

''It's particularly good on frescos because it penetrates deep inside their pores,'' Baglioni says in the current edition of Angewandte Chemie, the journal of the German Chemical Society.

What's more, Baglioni says, his gel doesn't emit fumes.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 3 - There is no cause for alarm over the H1N1 flu virus according to Junior Health Minister Ferruccio Fazio who said other European countries are being hit worse.

In an Italian TV interview Tuesday, Fazio said ''we have had 18 deaths in Italy from the virus so far compared to 44 in France, 63 in Spain and 137 in the UK''.

Fazio compared the death toll to the 8,000 Italians who died last year of seasonal influenza as proof that ''this is not a dangerous virus''.

(ANSA) - Rome, Novembe 3 - The death toll from the H1N1 flu virus in Italy climbed to 18 on Tuesday with another death near the city of Naples.

Doctors said Fernando Lettieri, a 37-year-old jazz musician on dialysis following a kidney transplant died of pneumonia compounded by a flu virus infection.

Lettieri is the ninth person to die of flu related causes in the Campania region around Naples after two women, 45 and 72, who died there on Monday.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 2 - Junior Health Minister Ferruccio Fazio appealed to Italians on Monday not to go to the hospital if they think they have the H1N1 flu virus.

Fazio warned that a wave of patients in Italy's emergency rooms would risk ''clogging'' the system and said people with the flu should stay home and call their doctors instead.

The junior minister also responded to fears over the rising number of victims saying that ''Italy's death toll is half the the European Average''.