Science

(ANSA) - Rome, November 9 - Rome health authorities announced Monday they had begun vaccinating prison inmates against the H1N1 flu virus with doses left unused by the city's doctors.

Angiolo Marroni, head of the Lazio region's prison observatory, said after a long wait for the government to come through with vaccines for the prison population, local health authorities decided to use the surplus left over by doctors to vaccinate inmates at Rebbibia prison, the largest in Rome.

(ANSA) - Ancona, November 9 - Churchgoers around Italy are being asked to skip the sign of peace handshake and settle for a smile as a precaution against the H1N1 flu virus, priests said Monday.

Amid rising fears over the virus, which has claimed 35 victims in Italy so far, Ancona Archbishop Edoardo Menichelli told parishioners on Sunday that ''this is one way we can keep the virus from spreading''.

During a mass at the city's Cathedral, Menichelli said a friendly smile was as acceptable a gesture of peace as a handshake and less likely to spread the flu.

(ANSA) - Turin, November 9 - A real-time surveillance network to track the spread of the H1N1 flu pandemic in Europe and the Mediterranean will be the topic of an international health forum here next week, organizers said Monday.

Bringing together around 25 experts from eight different countries, the meeting from November 16-18 will focus on a new website to map the virus's spread through Europe and the Mediterranean.

(ANSA) - Florence, November 9 - UFO experts and ET enthusiasts from around the world will be headed to Florence next week for the city's tenth annual convention on extraterrestrial intelligence.

Organizers on Monday said the November 15 program brings together some of the world's foremost experts on close encounters and sightings for an all-day event entitled An Inconvenient Reality.

Organizer Pietro Marchetti said "the main idea behind the convention is to make people aware about all the unanswered questions, which have been in the media for the past 60 years".

(ANSA) - Rome, November 9 - Italian emergency rooms across the country are filling up with patients worried about the H1N1 flu virus, hospitals reported Monday.

According to ER doctors association Fimeuc, repeated health ministry pleas for people with flu symptoms to stay at home and contact their doctor have had little effect on the thousands of flu patients who have gone to the hospital in the last week.

(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.