Wellington - A row erupted Monday over an official decision to put the letter "h" into the name of the New Zealand North Island city Wanganui to restore its original Maori spelling after 155 years.

The ruling came from the New Zealand Geographic Board, which is the last word on the spelling of places on the map, and follows its decision 18 years ago to change the name of the river that flows through the city of 40,000 people to Whanganui.

Napier, Mar. 29 : India’s much vaunted batting machinery came to its rescue on Sunday, putting up 252 for the loss of two wickets in the second innings after being asked to follow on by New Zealand on Saturday.

Auckland, Mar. 29 : Former Kiwi cricketers, including Shane Bond and Daryl Tuffey, have been told they will be released from their ICL contracts if they request a release next week, a move which will allow them to play for the Black Caps again.

Players contracted to the financially strapped, unsanctioned Indian Cricket League recently received an e-mail from tournament organisers informing them of the option.

It''s understood Himanshu Mody, the ICL''s business head, will fly to Australia to meet with ICL executive board member and famed Channel Nine commentator Tony Greig in the next 10 days to discuss the proposal.

Wellington  - New Zealand's government welfare agency has confirmed it examines internet social network sites like Facebook to catch benefit fraudsters, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

Young mother Lauren Kaney, 22, of Mount Maunganui, was convicted in court last week of getting three times the weekly benefit she was entitled to, after claiming she lived on her own with her 2-year-old- son.

In fact, her Bebo and Facebook pages revealed she was living with the boy's father, the Herald on Sunday reported.

Wellington - People switched off their lights in 44 cities and towns throughout New Zealand at 8:30 pm (0830 GMT) Saturday to kick off the worldwide 2008 Earth Hour event designed to draw attention to global warming.

If hopes of the organizers, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), are realized, by the time the hour from 8:30 to 9:30 pm local time has passed around the globe, 1 billion people in more than 1,000 cities would have spent 60 minutes in darkness to show their concern about the excessive use of energy and its impact on the environment.

Wellington  - An illegal Indian immigrant in New Zealand for the last 23 years has been reunited with his wife and son after finally getting permission to stay, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

"I thought I would be going to my grave without ever seeing them again," Abdul Jalil Patel, 58, told the New Zealand Herald as his wife Amina, 55, and son Salman, 24, flew into Auckland airport on Friday.