(AP) MILAN – Premier Mario Monti pledged in a hastily called news conference two hours after the quake that the government will do “all that it must and all that is possible in the briefest period to guarantee the resumption of normal life in this area so special, so important and so productive for Italy.”
The United States Geological Survey said the quake on Tuesday, which struck at 9:00 a.m. local time (0700 GMT), was centered 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of the city of Bologna. It hit the area where a 6.0 temblor killed seven people earlier this month — and just as citizens had begun to resume some semblance of normality.