Wellington  - New Zealand's new government was sworn in Wednesday, officially clearing the way for Prime Minister John Key to attend this week's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit meeting in Peru.

Key, whose conservative National Party has formed a centre-right administration after signing power-sharing agreements with three other parties in Parliament, will leave Thursday for Lima.

Wellington  - German tourist Julia Jahn, 20, kept telling herself she was too young to die as she struggled for five hours to keep her head above water after her kayak became trapped on a New Zealand river, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

"I was thinking I want to survive. I'm still young. I don't want to die, so I had such a big will to live," Jahn, from Bavaria, told the Dominion Post as she talked about Friday's ill-fated kayak trip in the wilderness of the North Island's Whanganui River.

Wellington - Two brothers were found guilty Tuesday of murdering a three-year-old girl who was kicked to death after months of abuse, including being hung and spun on a rotary clothes line until she fell off and put in a tumble dryer that was switched on, news reports said on Tuesday.

A jury in the Rotorua High Court took nearly 11 hours to convict Wiremu Curtis, 18, and Michael Curtis, 22, of the murder of Nia Glassie, who died from severe brain damage in August 2007, 12 days after being taken to hospital.

The girl's mother, Lisa Kuka, 35, who had been in a relationship with Wiremu Curtis, was found guilty on two counts of manslaughter for failing to provide the necessities of life and not protecting the child from violence.

Wellington  - New Zealand is experiencing a baby boom with a birth rate of 2.2 babies per woman in the 12 months ending September 30, the highest level of fertility for 17 years, according to official figures released Tuesday.

A total of 64,540 babies were born in the 12 months, the biggest number in a September year since 1962, when the population was 2.5 million, Statistics New Zealand reported.

With a population of 4.3 million today, the current birth rate is about half the peak of 4.3 births per woman recorded in 1961.

Wellington  - New Zealand prime minister-elect John Key named his first cabinet on Monday, saying it was focussed on growth and prosperity for all, despite the current international financial crisis.

"The growth outlook is weak and international and domestic difficulties abound," he said. "This government will concentrate on boosting economic growth because that is what will lead us out of these challenging times."

Wellington  - A new minority centre-right government in New Zealand will be sworn in this week after John Key, prime minister-elect and leader of the conservative National Party, signed power-sharing agreements with three other parties on Sunday.

They included the Maori Party, representatives of the country's indigenous population whose special status and rights Key's party threatened to abolish less than five years ago.