Quake City in Italy Begins Construction Probe

Reeling from the loss of 293 people and counting from this week's earthquake, officials in Italy's regional capital L'Aquila are investigating whether shoddy construction exacerbated the disaster, reports BBC. The probe is expected to focus on modern structures that rose after stringent safety standards were enacted. Rescuers have reported that reinforcement pillars in some buildings were made with sand instead of steel.

"We have the duty to verify whether some buildings were really constructed out of sand, as has been indicated from several sources, or in other cases without steel," says the chief prosecutor. (More Italy stories.)