New Zealand was on Wednesday named the world's least corrupt nation out of a list of 180 countries, unseating Denmark after a year in which the global recession and ongoing conflicts proved challenging.

A beverage company has asked a team to drill through Antarctica's ice for a lost cache of some vintage Scotch whisky that has been on the rocks since a century ago.

Scientists have discovered the first evidence that dinosaurs roamed the South Island of New Zealand with 70-million-year-old footprints found in six locations.

A sculpture of a New Zealand government minister crafted from cow manure sold for New Zealand dollars 3,080 (US$2,220) on an auction Web site.

New Zealand's national carrier apologized Friday to the families of victims of the nation's worst air disaster — 30 years after it happened.

New Zealand will hold a referendum in 2011 on whether to retain the current proportional voting system for national elections, the government said Tuesday.

A New Zealand court sentenced a former Cabinet minister to six years in prison Tuesday on bribery, corruption and other charges — the country's first lawmaker locked up for serious breaches of the law.

A disaster response team specializing in the welfare of animals was heading to Samoa in the wake of the devastating tsunami, the World Society for the Protection of Animals said.

An American working at a U.S. scientific base on the frozen continent of Antarctica has suffered heart problems and was being evacuated to New Zealand, the New Zealand air force said Monday.

An Australian property developer who once tried to sue the Sultan of Brunei was gunned down in front of his young son outside their exclusive Sydney home, police said Friday.