Wellington, Oct. 3 : The New Zealand Labour Department has admitted to losing track of 33 members of a group of Indian pilgrims who arrived in the country in July en route to the attend the Pope''''s Youth Day rally in Sydney.

Of the original group of 40, seven have been deported.

The group told media they had paid for visas that would allow them to stay in New Zealand "forever", but had been ripped off by a conman in India.

In fact members of the group were only issued one-month visitor''''s visas.

Wellington - New Zealand shares bounced back 3 per cent Wednesday, following a Wall Street revival.

The benchmark NZX-50 index finished the day up 3.07 per cent, or 97.74 points at 3,187.96.

New Zealand's rebound came on the back of news that politicians and economists expected that US lawmakers would salvage a 700-billion-dollar rescue plan for the financial sector.

Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard told Radio New Zealand that the central bank would wait and carefully observe the passage of the rescue package.

Bollard also appeared to rule out emergency cuts to the key official cash rate. "That is not the sort of thing that the official cash rate necessarily would respond to," Bollard told Radio New Zealand.

Wellington - China's free trade agreement with New Zealand, in effect as of October 1, has Tuesday raised food safety worries following the recent tainted milk scandal.

"Serious concerns have been raised about the safety of food products from China, in light of the infant baby formula debacle and concerns over melamine contamination of White Rabbit sweets and other milk products," said Green Party lawmaker Sue Kedgley in a statement.

Wellington  - New Zealand's stock exchange lost 1.3 billion New Zealand dollars (881 million US dollars) of valuation Tuesday after a US congressional rejection of a plan to bail out banks.

The NZX-50 closed down 3.7 per cent on a 113-point fall.

New Zealand's stock exchange was the first to open after the vote in the US House of Representatives.

Finance minister Michael Cullen and opposition National Party leader John Key said they expected the US Congress to soon approve a restructured bail-out plan.

Cullen told Radio New Zealand Tuesday that further delay would weaken the supply of credit.

Wellington, Sept 29 : How a man''s face can make a woman go weak in her knees is a secret that many want to uncover, and now Australian researchers have discovered the genes behind men''s attraction quotient.

After conducting tests on more than 70 Aussie blokes, University of Western Australia researchers found that women like the look of men with a lot of diversity in their immune system genes.

The men in the study were judged to have more average facial features - not too big or not too small - a characteristic humans find appealing.

Lead researcher Hanne Lie claimed that her results supported the idea that standards of beauty are not arbitrary.

Wellington - China's contaminated milk scandal has cost the world's largest dairy exporter, Fonterra Cooperative Group, 139 million New Zealand dollars (95 million US dollars), the company said Wednesday.

Chairman Henry van der Heyden revealed the loss at a press conference in New Zealand's largest city Auckland, saying he was shocked by media reports from China that Fonterra's partner, Sanlu Group, might have received complaints of sick children as early as December.

"I would be absolutely disgusted and appalled if information was held back," van der Heyden said. "What has happened here is a criminal event."