Scientists face trial over Italy’s killer quake

A GROUP of Italian scientists went on trial yesterday for failing to predict an earthquake that killed more than 300 people in central Italy in 2009 despite signs of increased seismic activity in the area.

The seven defendants — six scientists and one government official — are accused of manslaughter in a case that some see as an unfair indictment of science.

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 before the quake.