Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 28, 1994                   TAG: 9403280102
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: PISA, ITALY                                LENGTH: Short

CHUNK FALLS OFF ITALY'S LEANING TOWER OF PISA

A foot-wide chunk of stone fell from the tower overnight and was found by a guard, news reports said Sunday. No one was injured.

For years, experts have warned that the bell tower's exterior badly needs shoring up, but most attention paid to the 12th-century monument has been about efforts to slow or halt its lean.

After much debate, engineers stacked 600 tons of lead at the tower base last year to act as a counterweight. The strategy appears to be working: measurements in January found the tower had straightened up by about half an inch.

- Associated Press