Wellington - Fiji military strongman Voreqe Bainimarama's declaration that his country does not need free and open discussion about current issues placed his government "outside the community of civilized peoples," New Zealand's Society of Authors said on Wednesday.

The society, which includes the writers' organization PEN New Zealand, issued a statement saying its members joined a wide range of other freedom of speech advocates throughout the world in deploring the "vicious repression of media" by Fiji's military government.

Wellington - New Zealand's budget deficit is spiralling out of control as the country enters its sixth-consecutive quarter of economic contraction, Finance Minister Bill English warned Wednesday.

If growth in public expenditures is not checked, the deficits would hit 45 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in four years and an unsustainable 70 per cent by 2023, he told business leaders in Auckland.

Observers said the speech clearly paved the way for the conservative National Party-led government to cancel tax cuts for the next two years that it had promised in its successful campaign for election in November.

Wellington - Hackers who attacked Microsoft New Zealand's news website left it with a cream pie on founder Bill Gates' face, Wellington's Dominion Post newspaper reported Wednesday on its website.

Visitors to www. msn. co. nz on Tuesday found a blacked-out page with the words "Microsoft New Zealand hacked by Peace Crew," over a photo of a pie-decked Gates, the report said.

The paper quoted a source as saying the hackers attacked a server belonging to web-hosting company Domainz, which redirected traffic to a fake website.

Wellington  - Nearly 250 flight attendants employed by an Air New Zealand subsidiary will go on strike for four days on May 7 after what their union says is a seven-month fight for equal pay with the airline's other cabin crew.

The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union said all Air New Zealand flights to Australia and Pacific island destinations serviced by the airline's Airbus A320 fleet would be affected.

Wellington  - Two men and one woman on a crippled yacht that ran out of fuel between Australia and New Zealand were airlifted to safety Tuesday, news reports said.

The 13-metre Boundless, sailing from Brisbane to Auckland, activated an emergency beacon on Monday after its sail was damaged in heavy seas.

A New Zealand Air Force plane located it and monitored the boat's progress as the crew motored towards New Zealand.

Wellington  - The corruption trial of a former member of the New Zealand Parliament and government minister, Philip Field, was halted before it began on Tuesday when seven of the 12 jurors sworn in the day before were allowed to withdraw.

The judge talked to each of the five women and two men privately and gave no reason for excusing them but the New Zealand Herald website said they had indicated the trial, which is scheduled to last three months, would have placed them in too much hardship.