Wellington - Another New Zealand finance company announced it was in trouble Tuesday, the 26th victim of the worldwide credit crunch in the last two years.

The New Zealand Guardian Trust Company said it was suspending withdrawals and new investments in its Guardian Mortgage Fund which holds nearly 250 million New Zealand dollars (about 187.50 million US dollars) for 3,700 investors.

"Due to current liquidity difficulties in the market, the fund is currently operating below its target liquidity rate of 5 per cent," the company said.

Wellington - Searchers were looking Sunday for a man feared drowned after taking to the sea in an outrigger canoe as one of the worst storms to hit New Zealand in a decade blasted the North Island.

The 33-year-old man fell from his canoe in 7-metre sea swells as winds gusting to 165 kilometres an hour lashed the island on Saturday, toppling power lines leaving 
60,000 homes without electricity and blocking highways with landslides and floodwaters.

Wellington - About 100 demonstrators staged a noisy protest against United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, dubbing her a war criminal, when she held talks with New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark in Auckland on Saturday.

Some wore orange boiler suits like those worn by prisoners at the US base Guantanomo Bay in Cuba and carried banners reading "USA a terrorist state" and saying Rice was wanted for war crimes, Radio New Zealand reported.

Wellington - What weather forecasters warned would be "no ordinary storm" hit New Zealand on Saturday, bringing down power lines, toppling trees and ripping roofs from houses as torrential rains flooded the Northland region.

Winds gusting to 165 kilometres an hour were recorded at Cape Brett in the Bay of Islands and officials warned people to leave the centre of Whangarei, the region's biggest city with a population of about 50,000, as floodwaters swollen by high tides threatened.

Wellington - New Zealand's biggest city, Auckland, was warned Friday to prepare for what meteorologists said could be one of the worst subtropical storms to hit the country in a decade.

"This is no ordinary storm," a Meteorological Service spokesman said. "It's one of the largest and deepest lows we've seen for some years.

"By the time this system reaches northern New Zealand on Saturday, it is likely to have significant destructive potential. It is going to deepen rapidly and has the potential of bringing damaging winds, flooding rains, big seas and strong rip tides."

Wellington - New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters hit back Friday at a series of charges of secret cash donations made to his party, dubbing them "unsubstantiated rubbish."

Peters called a press conference to condemn "a campaign of innuendo, misrepresentation and character assassination promoted by some particular interests for their own purposes."

He said that every donation his nationalist New Zealand First party had received was legal and nobody, including himself, had personally retained any of them.