Wellington  - An Australian climber, missing after falling down a crevasse on Mount Cook in New Zealand's Southern Alps, is presumed dead after his brother was rescued on Saturday, news reports said.

Miles Vinar, 42, of Perth, told police his brother Mark, 43, disappeared as they were climbing down a ridge after abandoning a bid to climb the 3,754-metre mountain, New Zealand's highest peak, in worsening weather on Wednesday night.

Wellington  - An Australian climber was rescued on New Zealand's highest mountain, Mount Cook, on Saturday, while a search continued for his brother who has been missing for three days, news reports said.

The rescued man told police that his brother fell as worsening weather forced them to abandon a bid to climb the 3,754-metre-high peak on Thursday and he had not seen him since, Radio New Zealand reported.

A search was launched when the pair failed to return to a mountain hut to collect gear they had left there.

Wellington - A 50-year-old businessman who fatally stabbed a teenager tagging his garage door with spray paint was cleared of murder by a jury on Friday but found guilty of manslaughter.

The jury in the Auckland High Court took nearly 14 hours to reach its verdict which the judge said would divide people and called for restraint.

Bruce Emery, 50, fatally stabbed Pihema Cameron, 15, after he caught him spray-painting his house in Manurewa on January 26.

Wellington - New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra - the world's biggest exporter of milk products - slashed the value of its farmer- shareholders' shares by 20 per cent on Friday, citing "unprecedented turmoil in world equity and financial markets."

Chairman Henry van der Heyden also noted the impact of the difficult global economic outlook on the co-operative, which sells a wide range of dairy products in 140 countries and has annual revenues of about 17 billion New Zealand dollars (9.35 billion US dollars).

Wellington  - New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully Friday expressed his country's condolences on the death of former Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas, who he described as one of South-east Asia's most eminent statesmen.

McCully said Alatas had been a good friend to New Zealand over several decades and particularly noted the role he played in building the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) into a major force for regional progress and stability.

Wellington - A 79-year-old New Zealand woman euthanasia campaigner had the words "Do not resuscitate" tattooed on her chest Thursday.

Paula Westoby, 79, of Dunedin, who was filmed by the TV3 televsion network being tattooed, said that because of her age she would not want to be revived if she had a heart attack.

Westoby, who leads a local euthanasia group called Exit, told an interviewer that she was trying to make a political statement by being tattooed in public.

She said Exit wanted the law forbidding anyone helping another person to die changed.