Wellington - Banks in Australasia are well placed to handle the current international financial crisis, Alan Bollard, governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, said on Wednesday.

"While we are far from seeing the final impact of the financial and economic disruption, New Zealand's banks, and the Australian parents of the majors, are well-positioned to withstand the economic downturn," Bollard said while releasing the bank's November financial stability report.

Brisbane, Nov 11 : New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori has said that after losing comprehensively 0-2 against India in the just concluded four-match Test series, the Australians might unleash a strong backlash in order to prove a point in the ensuing two-Test series against New Zealand starting in Brisbane next week.

About Ponting''s decision to apparently put Australia''s over-rate ahead of winning the final Nagpur Test in India, Vettori said he didn''t think his Australian counterpart acted out of selfish reasons.

Wellington, Nov 11 : New figures have shown that the South Pole is gradually becoming a tourist hotspot, with increasing numbers of tourists heading there for vacation, despite the fact that it is one of the most remote places on Earth.

According to a report in The Dominion Post, arrivals at the South Pole quadrupled from 40 in the 2003-04 season to 164 last year, if statistics from the United States base at the pole are to be believed.

The first humans to arrive at the South Pole were Roald Amundsen and his party, on December 14, 1911.

Wellington  - New Zealand prime minister-elect John Key, whose conservative National Party won the largest number of parliamentary seats in last weekend's election, was in talks Tuesday with political allies on the shape of his government.

Amid signs that he would run a minority government rather than a formal coalition, Key had a brief meeting with Rodney Hide, leader of the free market ACT party, and another with leaders of the Maori Party, which both won five seats in Saturday's election.

Wellington  - New Zealand's Labour Party, which was defeated at the weekend's general election after ruling since 1999, elected Phil Goff, 55, as its new leader on Tuesday.

Goff replaces Helen Clark, 58, who had led the party for 15 years, the last nine as prime minister. Clark resigned after the conservative National Party won Saturday's election. She is staying in parliament and will be Labour's spokeswoman on foreign affairs.

Goff, who has been a member of parliament since 1981, apart from three years when he lost his seat, has held the foreign affairs, trade and defence portfolios.

Annette King, 61, becomes deputy leader of the party, replacing former finance minister Michael Cullen.

Wellington - Some voters on welfare rang police emergency numbers and counselling hotlines on New Zealand's election night fearing that the winning conservative party would slash their benefits, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The National Party won Saturday's election, ending nine years of Labour-led government that raised welfare benefits and pensions.