Wellington  - A New Zealand lolly called an Eskimo and in the stereotypical shape of an Inuit person has angered a Canadian tourist who says it is an insult to her people, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

Seeka Lee Veevee Parsons, 21, an Inuit from Canada's Nunavut Territory, told the Taranaki Daily News that the word Eskimo, used by confectionery manufacturer Cadbury/Pascall in its popular lolly mix, was unacceptable because it had negative racial connotations.

Eskimo means "eater of raw meat," she said, and the correct term for her people is Inuit.

Wellington - A former member of the New Zealand Parliament and government minister, Philip Field, pleaded not guilty to 12 charges of bribery and corruption when he went on trial in Auckland on Monday.

Field, who was in parliament from 1993 until defeated at November's general election, also denied 23 charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice during an inquiry by a government-appointed attorney into his actions in 2005.

Wellington - New Zealand is joining the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, Israel and Australia in boycotting a UN conference on racism this week in Geneva, Foreign Minister Murray McCully announced Monday.

He said the scheduled follow-up to the "extremely contentious" 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, was "not likely to advance the cause of race relations at the international level."

Wellington - New Zealand is reluctant to send more troops to Afghanistan because it believes the situation there is becoming more unstable, Prime Minister John Key said Monday.

"The determining factor is whether we can see a plan, whether the plan in our opinion is likely to work and whether it fits in with our long-term exit strategy," he said at his weekly news conference.

Wellington, Apr. 18 : President Barack Obama will be invited to visit New Zealand by the Maori king.

King Tuheitia, who is expected to lead a Tainui delegation to New York next week, would invite Obama to visit New Zealand, the New Zealand Herald reports.

King Tuheitia will join former Prime Minister Helen Clark for her welcome next week as head of the United Nations Development Programme.

King Tuheitia would then ask former United States President Bill Clinton to pass the invitation to Obama to visit his base, Turangawaewae.

Sydney  - Food has become dearer for New Zealanders even as the annual inflation rate declined to 3 per cent in the quarter ending March, official figures released Friday said.

Falling petrol prices in the fourth quarter had helped bring New Zealand's inflation rate down from an 18-year high of 5.1 per cent to an annual rate of 3.4 per cent last year.

The consumers price index (CPI) increased 0.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2009. Higher prices for food and cigarettes were largely offset by lower prices for transport, Statistics New Zealand said.