Italy prepared to end the search for survivors of its worst earthquake for three decades, which killed at least 293 people and made nearly 40,000 homeless, according to Reuters. A fire department spokesman said rescuers might call off the operation on Saturday night or Sunday after a search beneath the ruins of a four-storey building in the mountain city of L'Aquila failed to turn up anyone alive. "We said from the start hopes were very slight and unfortunately it looks like we won't find anything," he said. No survivors from Monday's 6.3-magnitude quake have been pulled from the rubble since Tuesday, and rescue efforts had not been expected to continue beyond the weekend. Violent aftershocks continued to shake Italy's central Abruzzo region overnight and into the morning, terrifying survivors a day after a state funeral for the dead. The youngest quake victim was a five-month-old boy, killed with his mother. With Easter around the corner, the thousands of people made homeless by the earthquake tried to find some normalcy in tents and borrowed quarters.
