New Zealand Earthquake toll at 98 dead, 226 missing

Rescuers fanned out into unchecked areas of New Zealand's quake-devastated city Thursday looking for any remaining life in the rubble, as the death toll rose to 98 with "grave fears" that many of the 226 missing are dead.

"Rescue team! Rescue team!" a visiting firefighter from Australia called out as his team went through an office building apparently abandoned during Tuesday's disaster in Christchurch. There was no response.

Police said up to 120 bodies may still lie trapped in the tangled concrete and steel that was the Canterbury Television or CTV building, where dozens of students from Japan, Thailand, China and other Asian countries were believed buried when an English-language school collapsed along with other offices. Twenty-three bodies were pulled from the building Thursday, but not immediately identified.

"The longer I don't know what happened, the longer my agony becomes," said Rolando Cabunilas, 34, a steel worker from the Philippines whose wife, Ivy Jane, 33, was on her second day of class at the school when the quake struck. She hasn't been heard from since.

"I can't describe it — it's pain, anger, all emotions," he said.

Officials appealed to families of the missing to be patient, saying the agony could be worse if they rushed the identifications and came to wrong conclu [...]