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Soldiers bulldoze Naples rubbish | |
(1 day later) | |
The Italian army has begun bulldozing the 100,000 tonnes of rubbish that has piled up in the streets of the southern city of Naples. | |
The government is to hold an emergency meeting to find a solution to the rubbish crisis. Naples dustmen stopped collecting rubbish two weeks ago. | |
With nowhere to put it local people are forced to burn it. The fire brigade has been struggling to put out the fires. | |
Protesters have clashed with police near an overflowing landfill site. | |
Police tried to reopen the site, but residents of Pianura, a western suburb, said it was a health risk and blocked the roads. They threw stones at police, who responded with batons. At least three people were taken to hospital. | |
Prime Minister Romano Prodi has returned from his holidays to a national embarrassment. The EU is warning there will be tough penalties unless Italy resolves the crisis this week. | |
Schools which have been closed were reopened on the orders of the government, though only a handful of students have left their homes. | |
Finding a solution to this problem means tackling the mob. | |
The Camorra, the Neapolitan version of the Mafia, has turned this into a hugely profitable business. | |
They have sabotaged every effort to build hi-tech incinerators, so that Naples must rely on landfill sites, where they can hide the domestic and industrial waste, which they chuck in from all around the country. | |
Health concerns | |
Millions of tonnes of it have been dumped illegally in the sea or in the countryside, untreated and highly toxic. | |
Doctors say cancer rates in Naples are much higher than the national average. | |
Over the weekend angry Neapolitans clashed with police. | Over the weekend angry Neapolitans clashed with police. |
In one of the more worrying developments, police found effigies of the mayor and the regional governor hanging from lampposts with death threats pinned to their chests. | In one of the more worrying developments, police found effigies of the mayor and the regional governor hanging from lampposts with death threats pinned to their chests. |
Rubbish collection is a perennial problem which has plagued Naples and its politicians for some 15 years. | Rubbish collection is a perennial problem which has plagued Naples and its politicians for some 15 years. |
The government is conscious it is under severe pressure to find a solution - but this means tackling the mob. | The government is conscious it is under severe pressure to find a solution - but this means tackling the mob. |
The EU says it is watching closely and is considering legal action for Italy's breach of European waste disposal directives. | The EU says it is watching closely and is considering legal action for Italy's breach of European waste disposal directives. |
In 15 years of promises, the Italian state has spent some 2bn euros (£1.5bn) trying, and failing, to clean up the waste. | |
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