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TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — New Zealand’s Lisa Carrington continued an extraordinary nine-year unbeaten streak to win the 200-meter single-kayak sprint in Tokyo on Tuesday, then backed it up to claim gold in the 500m. Carrington’s golden double makes her New Zealand’s most successful female Olympian, with four golds and one silver over three Games dating back to London 2012. Three of the gold medals came in the 200m solo sprint, an event the 32-year-old has […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — Seasonal workers from selected Pacific countries will be allowed into New Zealand without undergoing two weeks in quarantine, Jacinda Ardern said Monday. The expansion of the travel bubble will be restricted to workers from Tonga, Samoa and Vanuatu employed in the horticulture and viticulture industries where there are not enough New Zealand-based workers. “This new one-way travel policy will significantly expand the potential workforce available for those experiencing labour shortages,” […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern on Monday announced a hastily convened virtual meeting of APEC leaders this week to discuss the Asia-Pacific region’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic impact. Ardern is scheduled to host the annual 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit online in November, but called an additional ‘informal’ meeting for this Friday to examine immediate steps to address the crisis. “This is the first time in […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) — A magnitude 6.3 earthquake shook the area around New Zealand’s Kermadec Islands early Monday, the US Geological Survey reported. The quake, which struck at 1705 GMT Sunday, had an epicenter located 938 kilometers northeast of Ngunguru, on New Zealand’s North Island, at a depth of 10 kilometers, the USGS said. There were no immediate reports of damage or a tsunami. The tiny Kermadec Islands are mostly uninhabited. © Agence France-Presse
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern toured flood-hit areas of the country’s South Island on Tuesday, expressing shock at the destruction left when three months’ worth of rain fell in three days. Swollen rivers swept away bridges and landslides blocked highways in the deluge, which finally began to ease on Tuesday after a 72-hour barrage that Ardern described as a once-in-a-century event. “It’s quite devastating, there’s a lot of work […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — New Zealand’s military was deployed to evacuate hundreds of residents from flood-hit areas of the South Island Monday as heavy rains washed away bridges and cut roads. Rivers burst their banks as a weather system dumped 400 millimetres (15.5 inches) of rain in two days, an amount meteorologists said exceeded the entire rainfall so far this year in some areas. Authorities issued a rare “red” weather warning and declared a […]
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AFP) — New Zealand authorities declared a state of emergency in the province of Canterbury Sunday, as the region was pounded by heavy rain that could force thousands of people to abandon their homes. Acting Emergency Management Minister Kris Faafoi, who visited the hardest-hit southern parts of the area, said about 3,000 homes were at risk and the army had been mobilized to assist with evacuations if necessary. “The rain is going […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — New Zealand suspended quarantine-free travel with Australia’s Victoria state over a new coronavirus cluster Tuesday, the fourth time the trans-Tasman travel bubble has been disrupted since it opened last month. Officials in Wellington said they were taking a cautious approach after Melbourne recorded nine locally acquired cases in the past two days, believed to be related to a leak from a quarantine hotel. New Zealand’s Covid-19 response minister Chris Hipkins […]
by Neil SANDS WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern unveiled a big-spending budget Thursday aimed at stimulating the coronavirus-hit economy while carrying out long-awaited progressive reforms. The center-left leader — who faced criticism before last year’s election for her cautious approach to implementing change — announced major funding boosts to welfare payments, social housing and health. “We’re making sure our recovery leaves no one behind,” Ardern said. “It’s what some […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — A knife-wielding attacker stabbed five people in a New Zealand supermarket Monday, critically injuring three, but Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said it appeared the rampage was not terror related. Police said the attack — highly unusual in the normally peaceful South Pacific nation — occurred at a Countdown supermarket in central Dunedin at 2:30pm (0230GMT) and a man had been taken into custody. Witnesses told local media a man carrying […]
by Neil SANDS WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — New Zealand’s differences with China on human rights are becoming “harder to reconcile”, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday, after Wellington faced criticism for failing to challenge its largest trading partner. Ardern’s government has taken flak over its meek criticisms of China’s rights record, leading to accusations New Zealand is a weak link in the US-led Five Eyes intelligence network. In a speech at a China Business […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — New Zealand’s fledgling quarantine-free travel arrangement with Western Australia faced disruption for the second time in eight days Saturday following fresh community cases of Covid-19 in Perth. A worker at a managed isolation facility in the city and two people he shares accommodation with have tested positive, authorities said. Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan said the state would not go into lockdown “at this point”. But New Zealand health ministry […]
