Wellington - A babysitter who admitted torturing and murdering a 10-month-old girl was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison, news reports said.

Tiana Mary-Anne Odesa Kapea, 30, who was described as a trusted family friend, admitted in the Auckland High Court to swinging the infant by her hair, hanging her in a wardrobe and on a clothesline, and putting her into a freezer several times over a period of six weeks.

The child, named Jyniah Te Awa, died in September 2007 after being kicked, thrown against a wall, shaken and smothered.

"Our baby would be brought home with lollies and bumps and bruises, and every time we'd ask what happened, we'd be given excuses," mother Lisa Cassidy told the court.

Wellington, Nov 24: Students in New Zealand are experiencing Antarctica from the comfort of their classrooms, thanks to virtual field trips provided to them by two explorers.

According to a report in stuff. co. nz, Christchurch-based Learnz team members Darren Atkin and Charmaine Nelson are at Scott Base in Antarctica for two weeks to film and photograph the great southern continent, taking New Zealand children on a virtual field trip.

The explorers hold live audio conferences with schools twice a day and upload diaries, videos and photographs on to their website each night.

Wellington - The former head of New Zealand's immigration service, Mary Anne Thompson, 53, has been charged with fraud, Radio New Zealand reported on Monday.

Thompson appeared in the Wellington District Court on Friday facing three counts of using a document for pecuniary advantage and was remanded to appear again next month, the report said.

Wellington  - A search by a New Zealand Air Force plane for 29 fishermen believed to be drifting in life rafts in the Pacific has been abandoned after three days of fruitless, low-altitude flights, the Defence Force announced Sunday.

The maritime surveillance Orion covered thousands of square kilometres of ocean in the search for crew of the Taiwanese long liner Ta Ching 21, which was found burned out and floating on November 9 near Kiribati's Phoenix Islands.

Wellington