About three dozen pilot whales are refloated and heading out to sea, after surviving a mass stranding of nearly 200 whales on Friday.

Wellington (dpa) – About 60 pilot whales had been refloated and were heading out to sea Saturday night, after surviving a mass stranding of nearly 200 whales on Friday, the Department of Conservation said.

More than 100 whales died after the pod became stuck at Farewell Spit, a narrow sandbar at the northern tip of the South Island. It was one of the country's largest mass beachings.

Golden Bay Conservation Services manager Andrew Lamason said Saturday's refloat at high tide had gone well.

"They are grouping together and they are all heading south which is a really good thing, they are heading out into deeper and deeper water all the time so we are packing up our operations for the night and it is looking pretty positive at this stage.

"We will have people back out scanning the beaches first thing in the morning and we will be putting a plane in the sky to see where they are."

He said the whales were in good condition through Saturday with volunteers using buckets, sheets and shovels to keep them wet through the day.

Lamason said earlier he was concerned that the whales would suffer if they continued to re-strand, and that the department would consider euthanizing the surviving whales if Saturday night's attempt at refloating was unsuccessful.

He was more optimistic after the surviving whales stayed in good condition throughout a day of cooler temperatures and light rain.

"We've got to be hopeful but if we get through to Monday lunch time and there is a low tide, then if we have got whales that are stranded then, we will probably start euthanizing at that point."

Lamason said it was not safe for volunteers and staff to stay in the water with the animals after darkness fell.

"There is no way we can put people in the water in the dark around a 2-ton wild animal. I would be looking for people washed up on the sand as well," Lamason said.

New Zealand has one of the highest stranding rates in the world, with an average of about 300 dolphins and whales stranding each year, according to marine mammal conservation group Project Jonah.

By Andrew McCathie

BEIJING (DPA) – Vietnamese director Phan Dang Di on Friday urged filmmakers from his country not to be wary of the nation's sometimes heavy-handed censorship.

"I don't think you have to be afraid of that censorship," Phan told a press conference marking the premiere of his new movie Cha Va Con Va (Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories) at the Berlin Film Festival.

"Censorship is still a problem in Vietnam," Phan said. "But there are more avenues opening up. I shoot the films that I want to shoot. I don't shoot them in anticipation of the censors."

"I believe that censorship will disappear at some point in Vietnam," he said.

Set in Saigon in the mid-1990s, Phan's film is about a group of friends trying to find their place in a Vietnam still struggling with the aftermath of 20 years of war.

Cha Va Con Va takes the audience on a journey through the grey underworld of communist Vietnam where the young would-be photographer Vu and his friends spend a large part of their time.

But trouble with the law and a bunch of urban thugs forces the friends to flee to the Mekong Delta, where they reconnect through the swampy landscape and impenetrable jungles to life outside the city.

"This was a time when Vietnam and the world were moving into a new century," Phan told the press conference.

It was also about two decades after the end of the Vietnam War,  when the country was in the grip of an economic downturn triggered by the Asian financial crisis that engulfed the region in the mid-1990s.

"There was a surge in the population and young people were eager to get into the labour market but there were not enough jobs," he said.

This means that for some, as Phan's film shows, selling drugs, gambling and prostitution were some of the few means for making money.   

In telling his story, Phan draws a strong contrast between the violence and dangers of the city and the beauty of the Vietnamese countryside by painting a striking portrayal of the Mekong Delta environment.

"If we live in the city we need to have some refuge," said Phan. "And if we destroy the environment we will not have a refuge."

Ultimately, the friends return to Saigon but the dangers have not disappeared and the friends find themselves battling again to keep their heads above water and to pay off past debts.

"Violence is part and parcel of life in Vietnam. Just as we have a sense of order, violence bursts open at some points," the director said.

In the end, the friends decide to sign up to a government programme which pays modest money to volunteers to help stem the nation's population pressures by having a vasectomy.

Cha Va Con Va is a film about a group of young men who decide in the end against being fathers and forging a new generation in the country, said Phan.

Vietnamese filmmakers have over the years gained recognition on the international film festival circuit with Tran Anh Hung winning the Cannes Film Festival's Camera d'Or in 1993 for his first feature film The Scent of the Green Papaya.

Several other festival prizes followed for other Vietnamese directors.

However, the Vietnamese movie industry has for the most part struggled over the last three decades to have its voice heard in the country following the government's moves to modernize the nation's communist-era command economy.

This has left them often competing with television and a burgeoning DVD industry.

Phan also concedes that money is in short supply in Vietnam for independent filmmakers.

"It would not be possible to make any independent film in Vietnam," he said. "We were free to make a film (because of international financial assistance)."

Myanmar troops clash with rebels in Shan State leaving 47 soldiers dead this week.

Yangon (dpa) – Myanmar troops clashed with rebels in Shan State leaving 47 soldiers dead this week, the state-run media reported Friday.

The army launched an operation Monday after rebels from the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MDNAA) of Kokang province seized eight weapons from a local militia, the Global New Light of Myanmar reported.

A series of clashes with the rebels over the following four days left a total of 47 soldiers dead, 73 wounded and four military vehicles destroyed, the report said.

"We also lost at least 20," MNDAA spokesman Htun Myat Linn said.

"And I know that 10 more soldiers were killed in fighting today, according to reports from our troops," he told dpa Friday.

Other ethnic rebel groups including the Kachin Independence Army, the Ta'ang National Liberation Army, the Arakan Army and Shan State Army-North in the Shan state joined them to fight government troops, he said.

The army was using helicopter gunships and fighter jets to attack rebel positions in Laukkai Township in Shan state since Tuesday, media reports said.

"We saw helicopters flying over Laukkai town, but doing nothing near the town," said Min Min, a businessman working in the town. "We heard they are striking the rebels far from the town."

"We heard several hundred people from nearby area are now heading to Laukkai town to escape the fighting. But I'm not sure the place is safe also as rebels were trying to take the town," he said.

Thousands of people in the region have crossed the border and fled into China to escape the fighting, rebels said.

"About 2,000 residents are now sheltering in Yunnan province of China," Htut Myat Linn said.

The MNDAA and allied rebel groups were fighting to retake the Kokang self-administered zone, which the MNDAA controlled between 1989 and 2009.

The army seized back the area when the MNDAA refused to reform into the Border Guard Force under the control of central military in 2009.

"The MNDAA just demands to be a group signing the nationwide ceasefire accord, but Myanmar government didn't accept our demand," " Htut Myat Linn said. "What else can we do other than fighting against them to retake our region?"

In December, seven soldiers from Myanmar's military were killed and 20 others wounded in an attack by the MNDAA on an army outpost in Shan state around 30 kilometres from the Chinese border.