2 bodies pulled from NZ quake rubble; toll at 163

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Recovery teams pulled two more bodies from the rubble of one of the worst-hit buildings in last week's earthquake in New Zealand, raising the confirmed death toll to 163, police said Friday.

Authorities officially ended search and rescue operations in the stricken city of Christchurch on Thursday, saying there was no chance that anyone else would be pulled alive from the rubble of the Feb. 22 quake.

They say the job now is to recover bodies still jammed in the wreckage of broken buildings and to clean up and restore the downtown of the city of 350,000 people that has been shut down by the disaster.

Police Superintendent Sam Hoyle said …