Selected News Curiousities Traced to Italy

July 11, 2008 - GROTON, Conn. (NNS) - Italian Submarine Todaro Visits Groton

Salvatore Todaro S-526 arrives at Naval Station Mayport, Florida to participate in a Joint TaskForce Exercise with the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group. full story

.

Aug. 28, 2009 - GROTON, Conn. (NNS) - Italian Submarine Scire Visits Groton

Scire is preparing to participate in a Joint Task Force Exercise (JTFEX) with the Harry S. Truman Strike Group. full story

.

Sept. 7, 2010 - Associated Press - Joint Military Exercise Planned Off Ga. Coast BRUNSWICK, GA. — The U.S. Coast Guard and Navy will conduct a joint exercise in Cumberland Sound at the entrance to coastal Georgia's Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base.

[M.E. wonders: Where was an Italian sub? Did the well-publicized, and noisey (machine guns) task force encounter anything unexpected lurking about? Hmmm!]

The Florida Times-Union reports that blank ammunition will be fired from machine guns, and officials say aggressive vessel attack maneuvers will add realism to the exercise. The security zone will move down Cumberland Sound as the exercise progresses toward the mouths of the St. Mary's and Amelia rivers, then back towards Kings Bay. full story

.

Aug. 30, 2010 - Associated Press - Questions loom over drug given to sleepless vets

Thousands of soldiers suffering from PTSD have received the same medication over the last nine years, helping to make Seroquel one of the Veteran Affairs Department's top drug expenditures and the No. 5 best-selling drug in the nation. ... The only published study of Seroquel for PTSD-related insomnia involved 20 patients followed for six weeks at a VA medical center. The study, which showed moderate improvement in sleep, was funded by AstraZeneca at the request of a VA psychiatrist. Seroquel is also made in Italy.

"He was told if he had trouble sleeping he could take another (Seroquel) pill," said his father, Stan White, a retired high school principal.

A short time later, the 23-year-old Marine corporal died in his sleep. full story

.

Aug. 30, 2010 - Associated Press - Italy health minister apologizes for botched birth

Italy's health minister traveled to Sicily on Monday to apologize to a woman whose delivery of a son was botched when her two doctors got into a fistfight in the operating room.

The fistfight occurred at a state hospital between a doctor who works there and a private physician Mrs. Salpietro paid as her gynecologist.

The incident was the latest evidence of medical mistakes frequently reported in southern Italian hospitals, and it underscored Italians' increasing use of private doctors if they can afford them. Italy has universal health care, but some Italians use private doctors to avoid long waits for procedures. full story

.

Aug. 31, 2010 - Associated Press - Air Force: Sergeant may have exposed others to HIV

The military has arrested an Air Force sergeant and accused him of having unprotected sex with partners he met at "swinger" parties in central Kansas even though he knew he was HIV positive, according to a military affidavit.

The affidavit filed for a search warrant stated that the sergeant had engaged in numerous unprotected sex acts with multiple partners over the past three years. His wife told authorities her husband became infected in 2007 while stationed in Italy. full story

.

Submarines are always silent and strange.