Wellington  - George, a Jack Russell terrier that died saving five children being attacked by pit bulls in New Zealand two years ago, is to get Britain's highest award for animal bravery, a newspaper reported Thursday.

The award, which has been made only 15 times since it was introduced by the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals of the Poor in 2001, is to be made to George's owner, Alan Gay, the Taranaki Daily News reported.

Wellington  - An Australian woman who had never hiked in the bush before spent nine days living on muesli bars and breakfast cereal in a remote hut after realising she should never have attempted to walk a track in New Zealand's mountainous South Island, news reports said on Wednesday.

The woman, from Adelaide and reportedly in her 20s, abandoned her solo walk when she realised she did not have the skills or level of fitness to finish it, Phillip Melchior, chairman of the national search and rescue organisation, told Radio New Zealand.

Wellington  - Falling petrol prices in the fourth quarter of 2008 helped bring down New Zealand's inflation rate from an 18-year high of 5.1 per cent to an annual rate of
3.4 per cent last year, according to official figures released Tuesday.

The consumer price index (CPI) decreased 0.5 per cent in the October-December period, the biggest quarterly fall in 10 years, and a sharp turnaround from the 1.5-per-cent increase posted in the third quarter, which had pushed annual inflation over 5 per cent, Statistics New Zealand said.

Wellington  - A mother tipped off police to arrest her son on a rape charge after seeing her kitchen knife, which he allegedly used in the attack, in a photograph released by investigators, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

Police released a photograph of the knife and a tea towel found near the scene of the attack on a 22-year-old Dutch tourist to the local Southland Times, which posted it on its website.

Wellington  - Nearly 650 New Zealanders snapped up super cheap airfares as low as 50 New Zealand dollars (about 27 US dollars) for flights to Europe in September after a data inputting error on the website of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, a report said Friday.

The watchdog dog Commerce Commission rebuked the airline for taking more than four hours to correct the mistake and said it should have better systems in place.

Wellington - Fiji, which has been devastated by floods following torrential rains over the last week, has made an international appeal for aid, especially drinking water, according to reports from the capital Suva on Friday.

The Pacific island state's Foreign Affairs Secretary Ratu Isoa Gavidi told Radio New Zealand that 20 countries had been asked to help with water, holding tanks and purification tablets at the top of the list.

He said it could be two or three weeks before fresh water supplies are restored to some flood-stricken areas. Clothing, bedding and tents were also needed.