The defending champions Germany has clearly shown better peformance in hockey, as the team crushed the New Zealand team to enter the Semi-Finals of the much-hyped FIH World Cup.

After suffering from a draw against Holland, German team's aggressive stature clearly displayed the belief of a win to seal a position in the top four in the tournament. A goal by Cristoph Menke opened the flood doors for the kiwis and the team lost to the Germans by 5-2 in a crucial encounter.

New Zealand has defeated Australia by 2 wickets in the first One Day International (ODI) match at McLean Park in Napier to take 1-0 lead in the ODI series on Wednesday.

Australian skipper Ricky Ponting won the toss and opted to bat first. Australia scored 275 runs with loss of eight wickets in their allotted 50 overs. M Hussey was top scorer for Australia who scored 59 runs while S Watson smashed 45 runs in just 31 balls.

Netherlands has defeated New Zealand by 3-1 in the second match of the Pool A on the fourth day of the Hockey World Cup (HWC) at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium in New Delhi on Wednesday.

New Zealand’s Phillip Burrows scored the first goal of the match in the first minute but Ronald Brouwer of Netherlands smashed ball into the nets in the second minute of the match to level the score.

The New Zealand team is go to India for the hockey World Cup scheduled to start in New Delhi on Sunday despite a reported terrorist threat, officials said.

Hockey officials, who put the team's departure on hold following last week's threat, said Monday they had assessed advice from the New Zealand government and an independent adviser on security arrangements in India.

"The detail we have received has reassured us that the required level of security is in place, therefore we have kept the team in the tournament," Hilary Poole, chief executive of Hockey New Zealand, said.

Poole said one player, Simon Child, had made a personal decision to pull out.

New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key said on Tuesday that India is a priority relationship. He was welcoming Rahul Gandhi, great-grandson of his country's first prime minister, Jawaharlal

Nehru.

Gandhi is visiting New Zealand as the inaugural Sir Edmund Hillary Fellow, a fund set up to recognize the special contribution the conqueror of Mount Everest made to relations between the

two countries and Nepal.

Key further added that the aim of the fellowship is to build a constituency for New Zealand among the emerging leaders of India and Nepal.

In New Zealand's Stewart Island, the Department of Conservation has reported the death of twenty-eight pilot whales in a mass stranding at a remote beach over the weekend. According to

the reports, nine whales were already dead Sunday morning when a hiker came across the pod scattered over about 700 meters of West Ruggedy Beach, and the rest had to be euthanized.

New Zealand has clean swept Bangladesh by 3-0 after winning the last one day international match of the series by three wickets at the AMI Stadium, Christchurch on Thursday.

New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori won the toss and invited Bangladesh to bat first. I Kayes (101) smashed a brilliant century as Bangladesh scored 241 runs for loss of nine wickets in their allotted 50 overs.

T Southee and Vettori took three wickets each while A McKay and J Oram chipped in with one wicket each.

Two painkillers containing dextropropoxyphene would be withdrawn from the market, said New Zealand health officials on Tuesday. The decision was taken after a review showed that their

risks outweighed possible benefits. Paradex tablets and Capadex capsules were no better at treating pain than full-dose paracetamol but caused more side effects than paracetamol. IN addition

to that these were dangerous if taken with alcohol or in overdoses, said Stewart Jessamine, of the Health Ministry's Medsafe division.

Wellington, Feb 7 : Ineed. co. nz, the website that earned worldwide notoriety after allowing a 19-year-old Northland girl to auction her virginity, gained around 1.5 million dollars in free publicity from the scandal, an advertising industry expert says.

The girl called ‘Unigirl’ apparently sold her virginity for 45,000 dollars to pay her university fees.

"The New Zealand exposure for the site is worth over 100,000 dollars,” the New Zealand Herald quoted Nigel Keats, managing director of advertising agency ODM, as saying.

"Certainly there are a lot of people who hadn''t heard of ineed. co. nz a fortnight ago who have now.

Auckland, Feb 7: The wife of slain Indian-origin taxi driver Hiren Mohini has said that his death is still hard to believe for the family, including her two young daughters.

Speaking about the tragedy for the first time, Falguni Mohini said she had kept the gruesome details of the murder from her two daughters, five-year-old Yashvi and three-year-old Hetvi.

“We told them Papa has gone to stay with God, but that is still hard for them to understand. Both children are so young and innocent so we are taking it slowly, day by day. But we told them his soul is free,” The New Zealand Herald quoted Falguni, as saying.

Vodafone New Zealand is optimistic for the new BlackBerry Bold 9700 to get popular with businesses and high powered executives, just like its predecessor.

The company's 900MHz extended 3G network supports the BlackBerry Bold 9700. Vodafone's 3G Extend network that operates in 97% of the places New Zealanders live work and play, switches over automatically to the 2G network if 3G be unavailable.

New Zealand all-rounder Jesse Ryder has pulled out of the third edition of cash rich and lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL-3) due to groin injury.

New Zealand Cricket (NZC) official reported that Ryder has not yet fully recovered from the injury and he will miss the IPL-3 to get fit for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup to be held in West Indies in May this year.

After major concerns about the rapidly rising rates of abuse and addiction, access to painkillers which contain codeine might be restricted across New Zealand within a mere months.

As per recommendations shared by the New Zealand Medicines Classification Committee, pack sizes of all medicines which contain the drug should be made smaller, and should only be sold directly by pharmacists.

Medsafe, the country's medicines regulator, has shared that there are currently some 30 pain relievers circulating in the market which contain codeine, including popular brands like Panadeine and Nurofen Plus.

Codeine is most commonly used as a base for the illegal manufacturing of "homebake" heroin.

Catholic aid network Caritas Internationalis has emerged as a bliss for the Haiti victims, supporting over 50,000 people in an initial response to the earthquake in Haiti.

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand director Michael Smith says an international team has flown into Haiti to support the work of Caritas members Caritas Haiti and US-based Catholic Relief Services
(CRS).

Over 300 Caritas local staff has indulged in the noble task, to deliver relief supplies to the many survivors in urgent need in Haiti despite the significant difficulties they face.

Caritas is also delivering tents and blankets, and extending medical care through some of Caritas Haiti’s 200+ clinics and hospitals in the country.

Over a hundred technology enthusiasts have gathered in Wellington today for an open source software conference that will last for a whole week.

In addition, another 700 delegates will most probably be attending the Linux conference which will look to discuss the future and viability of open source software and how it can be successfully used for businesses and to serve Government ends.

The Wellington conference has been going on for 11 years and is one of the largest in the world to be held on the subject. More often, the conference is hosted by Australia, and this is the second time the New Zealand is getting to play host.

Expectations are that the New Zealand Dollar will continue to trade within its recent range, as investors and traders wait for the latest local consumer price index data that is due for release on Wednesday. The data will suggest whether or not the central bank will lift its benchmark interest rates.

In a recent survey carried out by BusinessWire, 4 out of the seven economists and strategists interviewed said that the currency is very likely to stick to the "familiar territory" this week.

The CPI data is expected to reveal that inflation was more-or-less flat in the three months up-to December end, and this may force the Reserve Bank to start adopting stricter monetary policies than those that were previously indicated.

The new highs that markets across New Zealand had managed to touch took another downfall as all major stocks began the week in negative territory; mainly on the back of a weak performance recorded by the US market on Friday. The downfall in market-values has come in a week when the country is expecting the release of some important data.

The country's benchmark NZSX-50 index closed after losing 10.848 points, or 0.333%, at 3247.104. The index had opened at a loss of 9.11 points. Among the 120 stocks that were traded, there were a total of 36 rises and 39 declines.

Wellington, Jan 19 - Television New Zealand was under fire from critics for being insensitive by showing a film about the late Princess Diana while her son, Prince William, was still in country.

But TV officials defended the broadcast of the film, The Queen, saying they did not check the royals' visit schedule before planning their programmes.

Britain's William left New Zealand Tuesday after a three-day visit, his first solo official overseas tour representing his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II.

In this wake there was controversy about the national television channel's decision to screen the film exploring the death of his mother, Princess Diana, while he was there.

New Zealand infrastructure investor Infratil Ltd has sold its 32.5 percent stake in renewable energy firm Energy Developments. The company claims that the step has been taken into the takeover offer made by Greenspark Power Holding Ltd, and it went unconditional on January 8.

Infratil revealed it will register a profit of around $94 million on the sale, in the financial statements for the year ending 31 March 2010. Since last year march, the company had been successful in raising over $98 million of new capital by divesting over $391 million of non-core assets.

Prices of residential properties have started to bounce back, despite the low sales figures, as has been confirmed by the latest numbers released. Over 2009, house prices across New Zealand recorded a 2.8% rise, which brought them to within the 5% range of the pre-2007 peak.

"This ends a year that showed a dramatic and somewhat unexpected level of turnaround in house values", Quotable Value valuation manager Glenda Whitehead said, while stressing that the increase in the main centers was mostly due to shortage of properties.