Wellington, Jan 31: Love can last forever, claims an Otago University professor, who found that adoration consistently improves with age.

According to Amanda Barusch, who teaches social work and community development, twilight love brings lifestyle changes.

To reach the `eternal' conclusion, the professor investigated love and romance among baby boomers aged over 50.

Professor Barusch found that the people she surveyed "consistently reported that love improved with age," the Salt Lake City Tribune reported.

She found a wide range of romantic experience when she interviewed 91 people aged 51 to 97 - most of them widowed, but also including married couples and divorcees, reports the NZPA.

Wellington, Jan 30: Using an advanced method of facial reconstruction, a team of researchers at the Otago University in New Zealand, has revealed the face of an Egyptian aristocrat, dating back to 2,000 years.

The 35-year-old female aristocrat has been part of the Otago Museum's collection for more than a century.

The facial reconstruction of the mummy is the result of over a year's work by a team from Otago University and they are confident that their modern day model is extremely accurate.

"I would say if somebody from that era comes and sees this reconstruction, I would say they would recognise her," said Dr George Dias from Otago University's Adanatomy Department.

Wellington  - An escape bid by two New Zealand prisoners handcuffed together came to grief when each ran either side of a lamp-post, news reports said on Friday.

The pair made a break for freedom as police escorted them from the Hastings District Court. They had not gotten far when they swung around the pole and collided with each other before collapsing in a tangle.

Each blamed the other for their actions, the Dominion Post reported.

Wellington  - New Zealand's central bank slashed its benchmark interest rate Thursday by 1.5 per cent to 3.5 per cent, the lowest figure since the so-called official cash rate (OCR) was introduced in 1999.

It was the fifth time Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard has cut the rate since July after keeping it at 8.25 per cent - one of the highest rates in the developed world - for 12 months in a bid to contain inflation.

Wellington  - The New Zealand economy, which is in the grip of a recession, suffered a further blow Wednesday with a forecast that will wipe up to 1 billion New Zealand dollars (about 530 million US dollars) off the critical dairy industry's earnings this season.

The Fonterra Co-operative Group, which has huge influence on the economy as the country's biggest single exporter, told its 10,700 farmer-shareholders that the global recession had cut international demand for dairy products and slashed commodity prices.

It might sound as an interesting story of fiction but all the readers who are reading it should know that it is true. Last year, a man named Chris Ogle from New Zealand was enjoying his time in Oklahoma when he bought a used MP3 player from a thrift store for $9.

Just a few weeks ago, this man plugged the MP3 player into his computer so that he can download a song. But to his surprise, Ogle found a confidential U. S. military files stored in the player.