Wellington, Aug. 11: A top Indian diplomat is heading to New Zealand to ask Wellington for support for the US-India civil nuclear cooperation deal.

New Zealand is a key member of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, which is expected to meet later this month determine whether India can sign the deal with the United States.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Helen Clark said "New Zealand has reservations" about the deal and will work with others at a crucial meeting of the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers'' Group (NSG) on August 21.

Wellington - The New Zealand stock market fell on Friday after the biggest listed company Telecom reported a 15-per-cent drop in annual profit as it faced increasing competition and rising costs.

Telecom shares quickly dropped more than 8 per cent after it posted an annual profit of 713 million New Zealand dollars (about 513 million US dollars), down from 844 million New Zealand dollars the previous year.

Wellington - One in five New Zealand children live below the poverty line, a children's agency said Thursday.

Half of all children in one-parent families, four out of 10 in the Pacific island population and 27 per cent of indigenous Maori youngsters live in poverty, Children's Commissioner Cindy Kiro said.

Her report on a survey with the Barnados child welfare organization put the total number of poor children in the country of nearly 4.3 million at 230,000.

Wellington - Big oil companies were cleared of suspicion of running an illegal anti-competitive cartel in an independent investigation into New Zealand petrol pump prices released Thursday.

The report showed that the New Zealand petrol market was "fundamentally competitive," said Commerce Minister Lianne Dalziel, who commissioned the study after angry motorists' complaints about a 30-per-cent increase in prices within five months.

The price of the most popular 91-octane petrol reached 2.18 New Zealand dollars (about 1.57 US dollars) a litre last month in New Zealand cities, a rise of 60 per cent since January 2007.

Wellington - New Zealand's unemployment rate increased slightly in the June quarter to 3.9 per cent, according to official figures released Thursday.

Wellington - United States crooner Andy Williams' Moon River proved more effective than Mozart's The Magic Flute in getting rowdy merry-makers off the streets in the early hours of the morning in