Wellington - A 31-year-old Japanese sailor is missing, believed dead, after falling overboard from a Japanese whaling ship in Antarctic waters on Monday, news reports said.

New Zealand's Rescue Coordination Centre said it had relayed a mayday message to ships in the area after being asked to help by the Japanese Coastguard, but the request did not come until six hours after the man was missed from the Kyoshin Maru Number Two.

Wellington  - A 26-year-old New Zealander was recovering Sunday after spending 24 hours swept out to sea by a storm when his jetski broke down.

Nathan Maclure was picked up 13 kilometres off the coast of the South Island on Saturday evening when a Russian trawler came across him in what police described as the "good luck story of the year."

Maclure, who took his jetski out for a spin Friday in a river estuary, survived two severe storms that pelted him with hail and was menaced by three sharks, attracted by jellyfish swimming underneath him.

He fell off his jetski twice before he managed to rope himself to it and told the Sunday Star-Times, "I was really scared."

Wellington, January 3 : A 70-year-old American animal communicator insists that animals do talk, and that horses are his favourite because they are straight talkers.

Bill Northern, who has been visiting New Zealand from the U. S. since 1989, even says that dogs can be too politically correct because they do not like to hurt people's

feelings.

He, however, prefers not to deal with felines because he thinks that cats are fibbers and will say anything to get their way.

"I don''t talk to plants because I don''t have the patience," stuff. co. nz quoted him as saying.

Bill claims that all animals communicate with him in English, irrespective of which country they are in.

Wellington, Jan 2: A piece of pita bread that looks like Jesus Christ is up for sale on an online auction site.

The TradeMe website shows a photo of the pita bread, which broke into pieces after being put in the oven.

One piece, the Kiwi seller said, looked like the face of Jesus Christ.

"I was tempted to eat it but for some reason I didn''t," the NZPA quoted the seller as saying in their auction listing.

Wellington - Falling petrol prices helped reduce the number of deaths on New Zealand's roads last year to the lowest figure in nearly half a century, the transport ministry reported on Thursday.

The 2008 road toll was 359, well down from 421 the previous year and 393 in 2006 and the lowest since 1959. Petrol in New Zealand is now at its cheapest for three years.

Wellington, December 31 : More people in the US would be planting kisses on their pets while celebrating the New Year rather than on other fellow humans, reveals a new poll.

According to a survey headed by Times Square Alliance, 4.5 times as many women as men intended to mark the occasion with their pets.

The end-of-the-year US poll revealed that even after conducting the survey for four years, the results remained unchanged.

"I guess it''s that pure joy and unconditional optimism that animals have that people love to be around," the NZPA quoted rep Tim Tompkins as telling news agency MCT.