Wellington  - The New Zealand dairy co-operative that owned a large stake in the Chinese company responsible for selling contaminated milk that killed six babies and made nearly 300,000 more ill refused all comment Friday on death sentences handed down to two people involved in the scandal.

A spokesman for the Fonterra co-op, which is the world's biggest single exporter of dairy products, said only, "We are still studying the verdict and are therefore not in a position to comment on any details."

Wellington  - New Zealand's and South Korea's foreign ministers are to discuss a timetable for launching formal negotiations on a free trade pact during weekend talks, the New Zealand government announced Friday.

New Zealand's Murray McCully said he would host his South Korean counterpart, Yu Myung Hwan, in talks that offered an important opportunity to further cement the countries' relationship.

Wellington  - George, a Jack Russell terrier that died saving five children being attacked by pit bulls in New Zealand two years ago, is to get Britain's highest award for animal bravery, a newspaper reported Thursday.

The award, which has been made only 15 times since it was introduced by the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals of the Poor in 2001, is to be made to George's owner, Alan Gay, the Taranaki Daily News reported.

Wellington  - An Australian woman who had never hiked in the bush before spent nine days living on muesli bars and breakfast cereal in a remote hut after realising she should never have attempted to walk a track in New Zealand's mountainous South Island, news reports said on Wednesday.

The woman, from Adelaide and reportedly in her 20s, abandoned her solo walk when she realised she did not have the skills or level of fitness to finish it, Phillip Melchior, chairman of the national search and rescue organisation, told Radio New Zealand.

Wellington - Leaders of Pacific island countries who will meet next week to decide whether to suspend Fiji's military rulers from their 16-member regional forum are unanimous in their desire to see democracy restored there, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said on Tuesday.

Key rejected charges by Fiji's strongman leader, Commodore Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama, who ousted the elected government in a bloodless coup two years ago, that New Zealand and Australia were bullying their smaller neighbour.

Wellington  - Falling petrol prices in the fourth quarter of 2008 helped bring down New Zealand's inflation rate from an 18-year high of 5.1 per cent to an annual rate of
3.4 per cent last year, according to official figures released Tuesday.

The consumer price index (CPI) decreased 0.5 per cent in the October-December period, the biggest quarterly fall in 10 years, and a sharp turnaround from the 1.5-per-cent increase posted in the third quarter, which had pushed annual inflation over 5 per cent, Statistics New Zealand said.