3 PUPPIES FOUND ALIVE IN ITALY AVALANCHE

Emergency crews digging into an avalanche- slammed hotel were cheered Monday by the discovery of three puppies who had survived for days under tons of snow — giving them new hope for the 23 people still missing in the disaster.

The first human survivors, meanwhile, were released from the hospital as questions intensified into whether Italian authorities underestimated the risks facing the snowbound resort in the hours before a deadly avalanche.

Five days after up to 60,000 tons of snow, rocks and uprooted trees plowed into the Hotel Rigo-piano in central Italy, rescue crews were still digging by hand or with shovels and chainsaws in hopes of finding alive some of the 23 people still buried. An excavator reached the site, northeast of Rome, to speed up the search.