Wellington - Cricket officials in Dunedin have apologised for using the slogan "It's all white here" to promote a Test match between New Zealand and the visiting West Indies side in the city next month, a newspaper reported Friday.

The slogan has been dubbed racist and insulting to the visitors, but Otago cricket chief executive Ross Dykes said, "We just wanted a catchy phrase to help sell the game."

Dunedin (New Zealand), Nov. 20 : The West Indian cricket team will be greeted with an "It''s all white here" slogan when it arrives in Dunedin next month.

While the catch-cry has raised some eyebrows, Otago Cricket officials are confident the visitors will take the concept in the right sporting spirit, reports stuff. co. nz.

Wellington  - A Royal New Zealand Air Force plane has begun a search for 29 missing Taiwanese fishermen after their burned out boat was found floating in the South Pacific, a Defence Force statement said on Thursday.

The Orion maritime surveillance aircraft will spend the next three days searching nearly 39,000 square kilometres of ocean for the men believed to have abandoned their vessel on three life rafts, a spokesman said.

Wellington  - The New Zealan

Wellington - Fiji embarrassed visiting New Zealand with a 2-0 win in Oceania's final World Cup qualifier on Wednesday night.

It was the New Zealanders' first defeat after five wins in the Oceania Nations Cup had already qualified them for the Confederations Cup in South Africa in June 2009 and a World Cup playoff against an Asian team later next year.

Both goals in Lautoka, Fiji, came in the second half after New Zealand goalkeeper Glen Moss was sent off in the 59th minute for questioning a decision of referee Lencie Fred, reducing the visitors to 10 men.

Wellington  - The state-owned Air New Zealand announced Wednesday that it was cutting 200 jobs in a new cost-saving drive as passenger numbers fall in the current international financial crisis.

Chief executive Rob Fyfe said that 100 long-haul cabin crew staff would be made redundant and up to 68 in technical, planning and management with smaller cuts in other areas.

Fyfe said the airline had reduced capacity to match customer demand over the past few months and had worked hard on initiatives to minimise redundancies.