New Zealand

About half of the 15,000 New Zealand forces who fought in the battle, one of history's bloodiest, were killed or wounded. Most have no known grave, and their names are inscribed on a memorial in the French town of Longueval.

“My hope is that today we can rededicate ourselves to a future free of intolerance and conflict. We do this in honor of the memory of those who fought and died here, so long ago," the Prince of Wales said in a speech at the Caterpillar Valley Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Longueval.

“We shall remember them.” 

The programme, delivered over five years, is aimed at encouraging increased sports participation and improving health outcomes in young people throughout the region, specifically Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands.

NNZ CEO Jennie Wyllie says they are committed to supporting Netball in Oceania and this programme will enable NNZ to provide long-term and consistent support.

“For a number of years NNZ has been committed to supporting and providing development to Netball in Oceania,” Wyllie said.

Robinson threw a personal best of 41.22m on her fifth attempt to secure the silver medal.

She proudly took the New Zealand flag once again from her supporters, and held it high as she celebrated her success.

The gold was won by Great Britain's Holly Arnold with a world record throw of 43.01m

Robinson's silver is the first medal since yesterday's 'gold rush' for the New Zealand Paralympic Team, when they won a record three gold medals and one bronze.

Pascoe finished nearly a full second ahead of Bianka Pap of Hungary and Alice Tai of Great Britain.

She went into the final having qualified fastest in the heats.

Pascoe regained the title she lost in London four years ago, but says she found the final pretty tough.

"I went out in the first 50 metres pretty much towards race plan and then the last 50 metres was hard and they came back in the last 25 [metres]," she said.

"It was just about guts and digging deep. Tonight was about coming out and getting the gold medal and that is exactly what I have done.

The Dunedin 18-year-old sat in the minor placing through her first five rounds before recording a distance of 5.62 metres with her last jump in the T47 category.

It was her third personal best of the day and took her ahead of a Cuban athlete.

The last medal New Zealand won in Paralympic field events for women was a bronze in the Long Jump B3 from Leslie Mancktelow in 1988 and New Zealand's first Para-athletic medal since 2004 when Peter Martin won two golds and a bronze medal at the Athens Games in 2004.

Photo: RNZ

The 36-year-old Auckland Central MP issued a statement saying the news was devastating for her and her family.

On her Facebook page, Ms Kaye said she informed Prime Minister John Key on Friday and would be taking leave of absence from her ministerial roles.

"I feel so lucky to have such an amazing family and group of friends who are giving me buckets of love and have been so strong helping me work through this," she wrote.

"I also want to acknowledge the PM who has been hugely caring and supportive."

The two sides were level pegging throughout the match with the world number one Australians only pulling away in the last couple of minutes.

Australia led 17-14 at quarter-time, it was level at 30-all at half time and 44-43 to Australia at three quarter time.

Australia shot 88 percent, while Bailey Mes and Ameliaranne Ekenasio shot only 77 percent for New Zealand.

Ekenasio shot 32 goals and Mes 23.

The Ferns had more intercepts and turnovers but were unable to turn that into an advantage on the score board.

The 7.1-magnitude quake has already been followed by a magnitude 6.2 aftershock and there will be more, GNS warns.

The first quake struck at 4.40am and was 130km north-east of Te Araroa and 55km deep. Since then there have been dozens of aftershocks.

Civil Defence earlier issued a tsunami warning, which has now been cancelled.

GNS Science seismologist Bill Fry said there was an increased chance of other big earthquakes striking near the region.

Just a couple of weeks after their disappointing fourth place finish at the Rio Olympics, Sir Mark Todd and Tim and Jonelle Price are competing for the 114 thousand dollar first prize, along with Andrew Nicholson, Caroline Powell, Dan Jocelyn and Blyth Tait.

Todd says the Olympic disappoinment still hurts, "It's going to be sore for a wee while I think, it is just another competition and sure it was an important one that we'd had four years buildup to, but like you say you've just got to get on with it and today's another day and this is another competition."

PACER Plus aims to create jobs, raise standards of living and encourage sustainable economic development in the Pacific region.