Wellington  - A search by a New Zealand Air Force plane for 29 fishermen believed to be drifting in life rafts in the Pacific has been abandoned after three days of fruitless, low-altitude flights, the Defence Force announced Sunday.

The maritime surveillance Orion covered thousands of square kilometres of ocean in the search for crew of the Taiwanese long liner Ta Ching 21, which was found burned out and floating on November 9 near Kiribati's Phoenix Islands.

Wellington

Wellington  - New Zealand's Greens have won an extra seat after votes cast in advance of this month's general election were counted, giving them a total of nine members in the 122-member parliament, the Chief Electoral Office announced Saturday.

The official declaration reduced the number of seats won by the conservative National Party by one to 58 but does not affect the power-sharing arrangement it has made with three other parties, which gave the centre right an overall majority.

Wellington - A New Zealand Air Force plane found no trace of 29 fishermen believed to be drifting in life rafts in the Pacific after a second day of low level searches over thousands of square kilometres of ocean on Friday.

The maritime surveillance Orion returned to Samoa after covering half an identified search area for the crew of the Taiwanese long liner Ta Ching 21 which was found burned out and floating near Kiribati's Phoenix Islands on November 9.

Friday's search was hampered by poor weather and will resume on Saturday. Then, it is likely to be called off if there is no sign of the men, who are believed to have abandoned their boat after it caught fire and taken to three lifeboats.

Wellington  - A Royal New Zealand Air Force plane continued to comb thousands of square kilometres of the Pacific Ocean on Friday, looking for 29 missing fishermen whose burnt boat was found 12 days back.

According to a Defence Force statement, an initial search for the crew of Taiwanese, Chinese, Filipino and Indonesian nationals from the Ta Ching 21 was conducted by a US Air Force C-130 Hercules on November 12 without success.

Wellington  - The New Zealand economy, already technically in a recession, suffered a further blow Friday when dairy farmers were warned to brace themselves for a 700-million-New-Zealand-dollar (about 364 million US dollars) cut in their projected income.

Dairy farmers are the main driver of the rural economy in New Zealand and analysts said the impact of their reduced income would be particularly harsh in small provincial towns, already facing rising unemployment as the recession bites.