Wellington - New Zealand Prime Minister John Key announced Tuesday that he had ordered an air force transport plane to fly to South-East Asia in preparation for a mercy mission to rescue New Zealanders stranded in Bangkok.
Key told a news conference that the Hercules C130 would go to Singapore or Malaysia on Wednesday and be put on standby to fly to the Thai military airbase of U-Tapao, about 150 kilometres east of Bangkok.
Wellington - Searchers failed to rescue two Japanese mountaineers overdue on New Zealand's highest peak, the 3,754-metre high Mount Cook, on Tuesday, but established that at least one of them was alive, news reports said.
Two helicopters searching for the pair, who entered the Mount Cook National Park on Wednesday and were due off the mountain on Saturday, spotted a tent near the summit and one man came out and waved.
Wellington - New Zealand consumers, who have kept their wallets closed as the economy moved into recession for the first time in nearly 10 years, will fire a gradual recovery when they start spending again next year, an influential think tank predicted on Tuesday.
The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) forecast the recession to continue through the current fiscal year ending in March with economic activity contracting to its lowest point of 0.1 per cent
It would recover slowly during next year, with private consumption stimulated by lower petrol prices, falling interest rates and tax cuts from October 2008 and anticipated tax cuts in April 2009, NZIER said in its scheduled quarterly predictions.
Wellington - New Zealand consumers, who have kept their wallets closed as the economy moved into recession for the first time in nearly 10 years, will fire a gradual to ecovery when they start spending again next year, an influential think tank predicted on Tuesday.
The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) forecast the recession to continue through the current fiscal year ending in March with economic activity contracting to its lowest point of 0.1 per cent
It would recover slowly during next year, with private consumption stimulated by lower petrol prices, falling interest rates and tax cuts, and then accelerate from 2010, NZIER said in its scheduled quarterly predictions.
Wellington, Nov. 29 : Ten New Zealanders are still unaccounted for in India, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) says there are no fears for their safety.
According to a New Zealand Press Association (NZPA) report, MFAT had received inquiries regarding 193 New Zealanders in India in the wake of gunfire and explosions rocking a luxury Mumbai hotel early on Saturday, with 183 confirmed as safe as well.
"We are still making inquiries about 10. Not all the 10 are necessarily in Mumbai. At this stage we have no reason to be concerned about any of the 10," MFAT said in a statement.
Wellington - A New Zealand surgeon who blamed the alcoholic hand wash he used to scrub up after operations for failing a breathalyser test was convicted Friday of a drunk-driving charge, news reports said.
Ian Denholm, 53, head of orthopaedic surgery at Wairarapa Hospital, north of Wellington, said he had only two glasses of wine and blamed an extraordinary ability to absorb alcohol in the hand wash gel because of eczema for putting him over the limit.
Wellington - New Zealand Prime Minister John Key announced Tuesday that he had ordered an air force transport plane to fly to South-East Asia in preparation for a mercy mission to rescue New Zealanders stranded in Bangkok.
Wellington - Searchers failed to rescue two Japanese mountaineers overdue on New Zealand's highest peak, the 3,754-metre high Mount Cook, on Tuesday, but established that at least one of them was alive, news reports said.
Wellington - A New Zealand surgeon who blamed the alcoholic hand wash he used to scrub up after operations for failing a breathalyser test was convicted Friday of a drunk-driving charge, news reports said.
