Wellington - Fiji's military rulers have backed off from a threat to expel New Zealand's senior diplomat in the capital Suva for talking to opposition politicians, according to news reports on Tuesday.
Fiji strongman Commodore Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama had earlier threatened to throw out acting High Commissioner Caroline McDonald unless Wellington issued a visa allowing the son of the president's secretary to return to New Zealand to finish his university studies.
Wellington - Moko, a bottlenose dolphin that has frolicked off a New Zealand beach for more than 18 months, has become so tame that she catches fish for swimmers, a newspaper reported on Saturday.
"She has actually been bringing fish to people," Jamie Quirk, a Department of Conservation manager at Wairoa, on the east coast of the North Island, told the Dominion Post.
"Some lucky people have had her bring them seahorses."
Wellington - Jimmy Choo, British shoemaker to the stars, has threatened to sue a New Zealand woman unless she changes the name of her oneline gift shop Kookychoo. com - which does not sell shoes - a newspaper reported on Saturday.
Looie James, a mother of seven who lives on a small farm about 50 kilometres north of Auckland and sells things like teddy bears, glass bracelets and bean bags, said she had received an aggressive letter from intellectual property lawyers acting for Jimmy Choo claiming the names were similar enough for customers to be confused.
Wellington - New Zealand has urged Spain to take action against the owners of a boat seen fishing illegally in Antarctic waters, Foreign Minister Murray McCully said Friday.
He said the Spanish-owned Bigaro, which has been blacklisted under an international treaty aimed at protecting resources in the Antarctic, was photographed Tuesday by a Royal New Zealand Air Force plane on a maritime surveillance patrol in the Southern Ocean.
The Bigaro was fishing inside the management area of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), which has blacklisted the ship for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in the Antarctic, McCully said.
Wellington - A record number of 48,500 New Zealanders emigrated to Australia in the 12 months ending November 30, according to government figures released Friday.
That number was offset by 13,200 people, either returning New Zealanders or emigrating Australians, arriving in the country for permanent or long-term stays, leaving a net loss of 35,300 - or nearly 100 a day, Statistics New Zealand reported.
The difference was the highest net 12-month loss to Australia ever recorded, topping previous peaks of 33,700 in the year to January 1989 and 33,400 in the calendar year
1979.
Statistics New Zealand said the pattern of migration to Australia went in cycles with previous peak outflows in the late 1970s and 1980s.
Wellington - The New Zealand government on Thursday warned of tough times ahead after new Treasury forecasts painted a gloomy picture for an economy that has already been in recession this year.
The Treasury predicted a steep rise in unemployment from 3.7 per cent this year to 6.4 per cent over the next 15 months, economic growth virtually stagnant until 2010-2011 and soaring national debt.
After years of budget surpluses, the Treasury forecast cash deficits rising from 6.6 billion New Zealand dollars (3.8 billion US dollars) this fiscal year to 11.4 billion New Zealand dollars by 2013.
Wellington - Fiji's military rulers have backed off from a threat to expel New Zealand's senior diplomat in the capital Suva for talking to opposition politicians, according to news reports on Tuesday.
Wellington - Moko, a bottlenose dolphin that has frolicked off a New Zealand beach for more than 18 months, has become so tame that she catches fish for swimmers, a newspaper reported on Saturday.
Wellington - Jimmy Choo, British shoemaker to the stars, has threatened to sue a New Zealand woman unless she changes the name of her oneline gift shop Kookychoo. com - which does not sell shoes - a newspaper reported on Saturday.
