Wellington - People switched off their lights in 44 cities and towns throughout New Zealand at 8:30 pm (0830 GMT) Saturday to kick off the worldwide 2008 Earth Hour event designed to draw attention to global warming.

If hopes of the organizers, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), are realized, by the time the hour from 8:30 to 9:30 pm local time has passed around the globe, 1 billion people in more than 1,000 cities would have spent 60 minutes in darkness to show their concern about the excessive use of energy and its impact on the environment.

Wellington  - An illegal Indian immigrant in New Zealand for the last 23 years has been reunited with his wife and son after finally getting permission to stay, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

"I thought I would be going to my grave without ever seeing them again," Abdul Jalil Patel, 58, told the New Zealand Herald as his wife Amina, 55, and son Salman, 24, flew into Auckland airport on Friday.

Wellington  - Nina Schubert, 25, a German fashion model who strutted the catwalk in London, Paris, Milan and New York for six years, is working at an abattoir in New Zealand, a newspaper revealed on Saturday.

"I need to learn a trade. I only know modelling," she told the Taranaki Daily News.

The 1.8-metre, long-legged, blue-eyed blonde who has been pictured in swimsuits in the world's leading fashion magazines, said it was hard, strenuous, physical work.

Napier (New Zealand), Mar. 27 : Kiwi batsman Jesse Ryder appeared disappointed on Friday after completing his double ton, suggesting that he is hungry to score more runs.

Ryder slammed his bat on the ground after playing the ball back on to his stumps just after reaching his maiden double hundred.

Napier(New Zealand),Mar. 27 : New Zealand vice-captain Brendon McCullum is expecting an Indian onslaught with Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar at the crease at the end of the second day's play in the Napier Test.

"There''s world class players still at the crease and world class players still to come. It''ll take an amazing effort from us to try and get through these next couple of batsmen," McCullum said.

Napier (New Zealand), Mar. 27: India was up against the wall on the second day of second cricket Test against New Zealand at McLean Park here on Friday, trailing the hosts by 540 runs and with only seven wickets in hand.

Replying to New Zealand’s mammoth 619 for nine declared, India was precariously placed at 79 for the loss of three wickets at the close of play. At the crease were batting stalwarts Rahul Dravid on 21 with two boundaries and Sachin Tendulkar, who is yet to open his account.