WORLD : Armenia Rescue Teams Giving Up

Some foreign rescue teams have given up hope of finding more survivors in the rubble left by the Armenian earthquake and they are heading home, a U.S. disaster relief official said today.

However, Soviet officials said their rescue effort would continue and denied reports that stricken cities would be bulldozed to prevent an epidemic. Voices and other signs of life in the ruins dropped sharply after Monday night, when temperatures plummeted to below freezing, said U.S. relief official Julia Taft. “The hope of finding any more (survivors) is ended,” she said.