Wellington  - New Zealand's capital Wellington was shaken by an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale shortly before 9 am on Saturday (2000 GMT Friday).

The quake was centred 80 kilometres north of the capital at a depth of 50 kilometres below the surface, according to the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences.

The institute said the quake was felt widely across the lower North Island and upper South Island.

Beijing  - A Chinese dairy firm at the heart of a scandal over melamine-tainted powdered milk has been declared bankrupt, a New Zealand partner with major shares in the company said on Wednesday.

New Zealand-based Fonterra said a court in northern China's Shijiazhuang city had issued a bankruptcy order against Sanlu "in response to a petition from a creditor."

Fonterra, which owns 43 per cent of Sanlu, said the Chinese firm will be managed by a court-appointed receiver who plans to oversee the sale of its assets and payment of creditors within six months.

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.