Wellington - The state of the economy in New Zealand, which is officially in recession, was the key issue when the main parties formally kicked off their campaigns for next month's general election on Sunday.

Prime Minister Helen Clark, whose Labour Party has led minority coalition governments for the last nine years, moved to calm fears about the global financial crisis by announcing that she would guarantee deposits in bank savings accounts.

Wellington - Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Alan Bollard announced the implementation of new liquidity measures Thursday and resisted mounting calls to cut the official cash rate ahead of a scheduled October 23 review.

The nation's financial system "has held up relatively well" in the face of international volatility, Bollard said in a statement.

The bank was scheduled to review the interest rate on October 23.

Bollard also said the bank would temporarily broaden its security programme.

"We will, if required, be prepared to lend on the basis of fully-secured residential mortgage-backed securities, prior to those securities achieving formal ratings," he said.

Wellington, Oct 7 : Schools in New Zealand may soon encourage cellphones in the classroom, courtesy the launch of a hi-tech teaching tool, in which students text answers to teachers.

The new device, called Activexpression, enables teachers to ask questions on the board through a computer, and students can then text their answer through their Activexpression cellphone.

The software immediately produces a graph or chart on the board displaying the students'' answers, allowing teachers to gauge the class''s understanding at a glance.

A Southland Girls'' High School class has already started using the technology.

Wellington, Oct 7: A heated car seat may keep your bottom warm and toasty on a cold night, but the extra ‘luxury’ might be silently frying your chances of becoming a father, say two studies, which claim that mobile phones too can toast men''s sperm counts.

Scientists warn that the seats could damage sperm production by raising men''s temperature to unhealthy levels.

An optimal temperature of between 35 and 36 degree Celsius is needed to produce healthy sperm. This is one reason why the testicles hang outside the main part of the body.

Wellington - Government accounts were "flowing" with red ink because of the worsening global financial crisis as well as higher inflation, overvalued housing and high personal debt at home, New Zealand's Treasury said Monday.

The Treasury forecast the budget deficit to widen to 3.2 billion New Zealand dollars (2 billion US dollars) in four years, up from 64 million New Zealand dollars in the current fiscal year, which ends in March, the government said at a press conference ahead of a November 8 general election.

Wellington, Oct 6 : An extraordinary collection of ancient rock art have suggested that the people of northern Australia have been interacting with seafaring visitors from Asia and Europe for hundreds, possibly thousands, of years.

According to a report in The New Zealand Herald, the paintings were found in the Arnhem Land, which juts out into the Arafura Sea at the top of Australia.

Alongside ancient paintings of thylacines, a mammal long extinct on the mainland, are images documenting modern-day inventions - a car, a bicycle wheel, a biplane and a rifle, as well as portraits of a missionary and a sea captain.