France calls off search for missing Italian mountaineers

French authorities on Tuesday said they had called a halt to special operations to find three Italian mountaineers who went missing in the French Alps some 10 days ago. ''Unfortunately we have lost hope of finding the three alive, given normal survival time and the bad weather conditions,'' Hautes-Alpes prefect Jacques Quastana told journalists. ''A search team will no longer be deployed to look for them but we will continue the search in the normal way,'' Quastana continued. The missing men are cardiologist Damiano Barabino, 32, from Genoa, Luca Gaggianese, 35, a mountaineering and climbing instructor from Milan, and Francesco Cantu', 40, consultant heart surgeon at Lecco hospital. Their relatives left Briancon on Sunday.