Fleeing from a burning, volcanic cloud, the people of Pompeii and Herculaneum had little time to pack, snatching a lamp, some cash or the house key as they tried to run to safety. But the owners of the objects never made it, the key never used again, as they perished in the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79, the subject of a major new exhibition at the British Museum in London. Although the disaster has been exhaustively examined, "Life and death in Pompeii and Herculaneum" seeks to shed fresh light on the daily lives of those killed that day.

ROME, Feb 6 (Reuters) - The European Union launched a 105 million euro ($142.05 million) restoration of the Roman city of Pompeii on Wednesday, and said it would seek to protect conservation funds from the mafia. The project began a day after police arrested a restorer on suspicion of pocketing hugely inflated fees for work at the crumbling Roman town, a world heritage site that was declared to be in a state of emergency in 2008 due to its deterioration.

Conservation workers at the long-neglected Roman city of Pompeii began a 105-million euro ($142-million) makeover partly funded by the EU on Wednesday, a day after former site managers were put under investigation for corruption. The project, which is being funded to the tune of 41.8 million euros from the European Union and is to be completed by 2015, is seen as crucial for the survival of Pompeii after a series of collapses at the 44-hectare site in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius.