New Zealand

An acclaimed performance troupe from New Zealand, The Front Lawn, will make its Philadelphia debut this weekend at the Painted Bride, 230 Vine St., with its latest production, The One That Got Away, billed as "a tale of love, madness and fishing and the thin line between them. " The Front Lawn, whose aim is to find "new and eccentric ways of looking at the everyday world," approaches the task with a mix of theater (including madcap melodrama), comedy and music. The troupe - two men and a woman - is a popular television and stage attraction in New Zealand and Australia and last year was hailed as the "most original comedy act" at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland.

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand - Passing trucks shook the six-story office building constantly in the months after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake in September 2010. "There were quite big cracks, you could see daylight from some offices with outside walls," said receptionist Maryanne Jackson. But, she added, "there was a green sticker on the door that said it was fine. " It wasn't. The Canterbury Television building collapsed into a smoldering heap when a second major quake struck the New Zealand city of Christchurch five months later.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A series of strong earthquakes shook the quake-weary New Zealand city of Christchurch today, briefly trapping two people inside a church. The quakes forced people to flee in panic from buildings. There were no initial reports of injuries. Christchurch has been shaken by thousands of aftershocks since a 6.3-magnitude quake killed 181 people in February. Several tremors were felt yesterday, the largest of which the U.S. Geological Survey recorded at magnitude 6.0. One of the temblors trapped two people inside St. John's Church, which mostly collapsed in the February quake.

The kiwi is the national bird of New Zealand, appearing on coins, currency and stamps. So it's no surprise that the kiwi will appear on New Zealand's first self-adhesive stamp. The 40-cent definitive with the peel-back paper will be issued Wednesday with five other stamps. Self-adhesive stamps are popular with small businesses, organizations and clubs that regularly send out mail, but not in large enough volumes to warrant a meter machine. Other nations that issue self-adhesives include the United States, Australia, Canada and Japan.

New Zealand continues its Heritage Series of commemoratives recalling settlement of the North and South islands over a thousand-year period. The designs of the six commemoratives that will be issued Wednesday make the stamps look old-fashioned. They have ornate borders, fine line drawings and sparing use of color that gives the impression of an engraving. The stamps, however, were printed by a modern lithographic method. The frames of the stamps, in fact, appear very similar to four commemoratives issued in 1906 to promote the Christchurch Exhibition.

In some ways New Zealand seems like Brigadoon, something charming and out of the past, but when it comes to transportation within the country, a visitor has a full range of modern options. Going by car is best, the biggest advantage being that it gives you flexibility in a place where you might want to detour into a forest of giant kauri trees or to the coastal homes of albatrosses, seals or penguins. The country is not very large. There are the North Island and the South Island, separated by the Cook Strait.

New Zealand has issued a surprise challenge to the San Diego Yacht Club, holders of the America's Cup, citing rules laid down 100 years ago. New Zealand has demanded a challenge next year, a bigger boat than used since the 1950s and a best-of-three series instead of the best-of-seven format used throughout this century. The justification used by New Zealand millionaire Michael Fay is the Deed of Gift, the document by which George L. Schuyler formally bestowed upon the New York Yacht Club custody of the Cup on Oct. 24, 1887.

Most people think of sauvignon blanc when New Zealand is mentioned. But Kiwi-land also turns out a stylish pinot noir, too, leaner and more vivid than many American renditions, which can trend so dark and extracted they might as well be plush cabernet. This pleasant and affordable pinot noir from Yealands, an environmentally friendly "carbon zero" winery in Marlborough, has a brightness that's true to the grape, ruby-toned with strawberry, Bing cherry, cocoa, and easy tannins. But there's also an herbaceous edge I like, too - a nervy aromatic that also buzzes through the New Zealand's white wines - that keeps this young-drinking wine fresh and friendly for light meat dishes.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Hundreds of jubilant gay-rights advocates celebrated at New Zealand's Parliament on Wednesday as the country became the 13th in the world and the first in the Asia-Pacific region to legalize same-sex marriage. Lawmakers voted 77-44 in favor of the gay-marriage bill on its third and final reading. People watching from the public gallery and some lawmakers broke into song after the result was announced, singing the New Zealand love song "Pokarekare Ana" in the indigenous Maori language.

The regional Bell operating companies may be daunted by deregulation, but many, including Bell Atlantic, are going overseas to reap juicier profits. On Wednesday, Bell Atlantic announced it was teaming up with Chicago-based Ameritech and two New Zealand partners to buy New Zealand's state-owned phone company for $2.4 billion. "This is the trend among the 'Baby Bells,' " said Geoff Johnson, a telecommunications analyst with Argus Research, in New York. "They are not limited overseas in terms of their rate of return on investment, so they are all bidding for things like this.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Hundreds of jubilant gay-rights advocates celebrated at New Zealand's Parliament on Wednesday as the country became the 13th in the world and the first in the Asia-Pacific region to legalize same-sex marriage. Lawmakers voted 77-44 in favor of the gay-marriage bill on its third and final reading. People watching from the public gallery and some lawmakers broke into song after the result was announced, singing the New Zealand love song "Pokarekare Ana" in the indigenous Maori language.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand - A shark possibly 14 feet long killed a swimmer near a popular New Zealand beach Wednesday, then disappeared after police trying to save the man fired gunshots at the enormous predator. Muriwai Beach near Auckland was closed after the fatal attack, one of only about a dozen in New Zealand in the last 180 years. Police recovered the body of Adam Strange, 46, a television and short-film director, the New Zealand Herald said. Strange won a Crystal Bear award for best short film at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival, according to his company's website.

Mexico releases Frenchwoman MEXICO CITY - A Mexican Supreme Court panel voted Wednesday to release Florence Cassez, a Frenchwoman who says she was unjustly sentenced to 60 years in prison for kidnapping and whose case became a cause célèbre in France, straining relations between the two countries. A police convoy with sirens flashing escorted a white sport-utility vehicle out of the prison where Cassez had been held later Wednesday, presumably carrying Cassez to the Mexico City airport.

Eileen Moran, 60, a visual-effects producer who helped create the look of a bevy of blockbuster movies - from the ethereal world of Avatar down to King Kong's 460 billion strands of wind-rustled specially lighted fur - died Sunday in Wellington, New Zealand. The cause was cancer, her sister Janet Hamill said. Ms. Moran worked closely with the director James Cameron on Avatar and with the director Peter Jackson on the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit, to be released in U.S. theaters this month.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - World Anti-Doping Agency director-general David Howman said Lance Armstrong pursued what appears to be a systematic doping program for a decade "probably with the knowledge" of people who were charged with detecting drug cheats. Howman told New Zealand's LiveSport Radio on Friday that Armstrong's repeated claim he has never tested positive for a banned substance could no longer be regarded as proof of his innocence. "What seems to have happened in this particular scenario is that it went on for many years under the noses of those who were supposed to be detecting it and at times probably with their knowledge," Howman told the New Zealand program from WADA's headquarters in Montreal.

The Delran native and Rutgers graduate has scored twice in the U.S. women's soccer team's first four games - all victories as the Americans get ready for their semifinal against Canada. Here are her thoughts:   We battled against New Zealand and came away with a 2-0 victory to advance to the semifinals against Canada. I felt that I put in another solid performance. I'm really enjoying playing defensive mid. When in possession of the ball the game is in front of me and I am able to find my teammates and keep the game flowing.

NEWCASTLE, England - The U.S. women's soccer team continues to leave its unique mark on legendary soccer stadiums. At St. James' Park on Friday, the Americans defeated New Zealand, 2-0, in their quarterfinal match to set up a semifinal game in Manchester with Canada, which beat host Britain on Friday. "We didn't want to overlook New Zealand," said Carli Lloyd, from Delran High in Burlington County. "New Zealand is a very, very respectable team and they brought it today. But our team defended well and we scored two great goals.

There's a reason Peter Jackson selected the South Island of New Zealand to film his epic Lord of the Rings trilogy. The landscape, with its snowcapped mountains, glaciers, rain forests, and sweeping vistas, lives up to the dreamland created by author J.R.R. Tolkien. The countryside is so jaw-dropping that the tourism board created an official Southern Scenic Route (SSR). The road lopes along for almost 500 miles, beginning in Queenstown, then skirting the southern half of the island before ending in Christchurch.

LONDON - Lauren Crandall stood on the stroke line and stared straight ahead, right through the helmet of Australian goalie Toni Cronk. Crandall had a plan for the penalty stroke. It was just her and the goalie, and the captain of the U.S. field hockey team was going to aim for the bottom left corner. "It went exactly where I wanted it to go," the Central Bucks East graduate said. "I just didn't want her to save it. " But Crandall's miss was just one of several lost opportunities for Team USA in its 1-0 loss to Australia on Thursday at Riverbank Arena.