EU pledges over $650 mln in aid for quake-hit Italy

MOSCOW. April 17. KAZINFORM. The European Commission is ready to provide funding to Italy, where 294 people were killed in a recent quake, the EU commissioner for transport said on Friday; Kazinform refers to RIA Novosti.

A powerful earthquake, measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale, hit 26 cities and towns in the mountainous Abruzzo province in central Italy on April 6, killing 294 people and injuring another 1,500. Some 50,000 were made homeless. The regional capital, L'Aquila, was hardest hit with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi calling it a "ghost town." He proposed building a new town, dubbed L'Aquila-2 to provide those who had lost homes in the quake with new housing; Kazinform cites RIA Novosti. See www.en.rian.ru for full version.