WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A U.S. Navy warship will visit New Zealand next month for the first time since the 1980s, ending a 30-year-old military stalemate between the countries that was triggered when New Zealand banned nuclear warships. New Zealand Prime Minister John Key announced Tuesday, October 18, 2016, that he has given clearance … Continue reading
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom will be allowed to livestream his legal bid to halt his extradition to the United States, a New Zealand judge ruled Tuesday, August 30, 2016. Dotcom and three of his colleagues are appealing a December lower-court decision which allows them to be extradited to the U.S. … Continue reading
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — How do you steal 500 cows? Probably not all at once. That’s according to New Zealand police, who said Tuesday that they were investigating reports of the unlikely crime at a South Island farm. Locals said they’d never before heard of cattle rustling on such a massive scale. And that’s … Continue reading
GENEVA (AP) — The UN health agency says “plain packaging” on tobacco products has shown to be an effective complement to health warnings, advertising restrictions, and curbs on misleading packaging to help save lives. The World Health Organization released Tuesday an 86-page report on “plain packaging,” hoping to decrease the lure of smoking on “World No Tobacco Day.” WHO Director General … Continue reading
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A 10-month-old baby is among those missing and presumed dead Wednesday, Feb. 24., from the massive cyclone that hit Fiji after the boy’s parents told a local television station they lost hold of him amid ferocious winds and floodwaters that rose to their necks. The death toll from Cyclone Winston has … Continue reading
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A service to commemorate the fifth anniversary of a deadly earthquake in the New Zealand city of Christchurch turned ugly Monday when someone threw goop over the government minister responsible for quake recovery efforts. Hundreds of people attended the botanical gardens service in New Zealand’s second-largest city to memorialize the … Continue reading
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Four tourists from Britain and two from Australia were among seven people killed Saturday when a helicopter crashed on a scenic New Zealand glacier, police said. An image released by police showed the wreckage wedged between walls of ice in a crevasse on the Fox Glacier. Police said in a … Continue reading
HONG KONG (AP) — Asian stocks slid Friday following sharp losses on Wall Street as a slump in commodities markets deterred investors from riskier assets and expectations grew that the U.S. would soon move to raise interest rates. KEEPING SCORE: Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 0.8 percent to 19,534.97 while South Korea’s Kospi shed … Continue reading
AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — Prosecutors say Kim Dotcom and his colleagues sometimes reveled in their role as “modern-day pirates,” discussed how to thwart the justice system, and joked that a judge would one day realize how “evil” they were. The much-delayed extradition hearing for Dotcom and three others who owned or helped run the website … Continue reading
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A New Zealand zoo decided Monday that it won’t euthanize a Sumatran tiger that attacked and killed a veteran zookeeper. The male tiger named Oz killed 43-year-old Samantha Kudeweh Sunday morning inside the animal’s enclosure at the Hamilton Zoo. Kudeweh had been a zookeeper for more than 20 years and … Continue reading
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Taking a break from filmmaking, Peter Jackson has created a museum exhibition he hopes will broaden people’s perception of World War I from monochrome to color. The first stage of the Great War Exhibition he unveiled Friday in Wellington features large color images depicting life in the trenches and on … Continue reading
LONDON (AP) — A New Zealand judge will lead a wide-ranging inquiry into alleged child sex abuse by powerful figures in British society, the U.K. government said Wednesday, an attempt to restart a troubled probe that has seen two previous chairwomen quit over perceived conflicts of interest. Home Secretary Theresa May told lawmakers that … Continue reading
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A volcanic eruption in Tonga has created a new island — although one scientist said Wednesday it could soon disappear. The volcano has been erupting for a month in the ocean about 65 kilometers (40 miles) northwest of the capital, Nuku’alofa. Last week it disrupted international air travel to … Continue reading
Spartan Echo 