Wellington  - The first tuatara reptile, a living fossil descendant of the dinosaurs, was born on mainland New Zealand after 200 years, it was reported on Friday.

The eight-centimetre-long baby was discovered at the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary in suburban Wellington on Thursday, captured for a historic photo opportunity and then released back into the bush.

Wellington - New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has warned the centre-right government that its plans to crackdown on criminals could breach international human rights agreements, a newspaper reported on Friday.

Officials said proposals to abolish parole for repeat murderers and jail violent offenders for 25 years for a third offence could violate United Nations' conventions and damage the country's international reputation, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Wellington  - A woman driver lost control on a bend, crashed into a house - and then opened a bottle of beer, a newspaper reported on Friday.

Vicky Johnson told the Dominion Post that she was sitting in her garden when the car ploughed into the side of her house in the Napier suburb of Maraenui.

Johnson said she asked the woman driver if she was okay. "She said, 'Yeah,' then cracked open a bottle of Tui (a local beer), right in front of all the kids, too. It was unbelievable."

Wellington  - A woman gave birth Thursday during a flight to Auckland from Apia on the Pacific island of Samoa and then left the baby behind when she got off the plane, news reports said.

An Auckland Airport spokeswoman was quoted by the Stuff news website as saying that a member of the Pacific Blue airline staff found the baby after the plane landed after the four-hour flight and passengers disembarked.

Police were investigating whether the baby had been abandoned.

Wellington  - New Zealanders Beryl Baguley and Matilda "Tilly" Hanlon celebrated their 100th birthday Thursday, claiming to be the world's oldest living identical twins.

The pair, who live separately in towns near Auckland on North Island, celebrated with about 60 family members and friends at a party in a club.

They received letters of congratulation from Britain's Queen Elizabeth, who is also queen of New Zealand, and Prime Minister John Key.

Wellington  - A large amount of permanent Antarctic ice could melt in the next 100 years, raising sea levels around the world by up to 1 metre as the earth's climate warms, a New Zealand scientist said Thursday.

"If you live in Bangladesh, New Orleans, Miami or Wellington, this is a significant issue in terms of timing and adapting to the change in climate," Professor Tim Naish, director of Victoria University's Antarctic Research Centre, told Radio New Zealand.