3 More Are Rescued in Quake Ruins

A man, child and pregnant woman were saved Thursday from the rubble of the disastrous earthquake that struck nearly a week earlier.

Piercing the gloom of devastation in this city, rescue workers reached the survivors despite what experts say are long odds of survival beyond 72 hours without food or water in such conditions.

Six others had been found since Tuesday in the ruins of the quake, which struck directly beneath Bam while most of its residents slept.

At least 30,000 people died as most of the city’s buildings collapsed.

“It caused the whole world to cry,” Iran’s former president, Hashemi Rafsanjani, said at a mourning service in Bam. “The world will always remember Bam.”

Iranian officials hinted Thursday that U.S. aid to quake victims might have eased decades of mistrust.

Rafsanjani told reporters that recent developments might have an effect on U.S. relations. President Mohammad Khatami’s brother, Mohammad Reza, went further, implying that the U.S. response might lead to an unspecified reciprocal gesture from Iran.