New Zealand

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Three young children who had just moved to New Zealand from South Africa have died in what police said Friday they’re investigating as homicide.

Police said they were not looking for any possible suspects beyond those involved in the incident late Thursday at a home in the South Island town of Timaru. They said emergency services had found a woman at the address who had been hospitalized in stable condition.

WELLINGTON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Thursday that Australia's new nuclear-powered submarines would not be allowed in its territorial waters under a long standing nuclear free policy.

A new Indo-Pacific security partnership announced by U.S. President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, will see the United States and Britain provide Australia with the technology and capability to deploy nuclear-powered submarines.

WELLINGTON, Sept 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) – New Zealand reported 23 new cases of COVID-19 today. Of the new cases, 20 were community infections in Auckland and three were identified at the border, Director-General of Health from the Ministry of Health, Ashley Bloomfield, said, at a press conference.

The number of community cases in the recent Delta variant COVID-19 community outbreak reached 922, including 905 in Auckland and 17 in Wellington, the ministry said.

There are currently 18 cases being treated in hospitals, including four in the intensive care unit, it added.

WELLINGTON, Sept 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Retail card spending in New Zealand fell 19.8 percent in Aug, as the country went into lockdown in the second half of the month, the statistics department Stats NZ said today.

This latest drop in monthly seasonally adjusted card spending was less than half the drop seen in Apr, 2020, (down 47.3 percent), when the country was in lockdown for almost the entire month, Stats NZ said.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The southern winter that just ended in New Zealand was the warmest ever recorded, and scientists say that climate change is driving temperatures ever higher.

For the three months through August, the average temperature was 9.8 Celsius (50 Fahrenheit), according to New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.

That’s 1.3C above the long-term average and 0.2C higher than the previous record posted last year. Scientists have been keeping records since 1909, but most of the warmest winters have been recent.

WELLINGTON/COLOMBO, Sept 5 (Reuters) - New Zealand had tried for years to deport the knife-wielding militant who wounded seven people at a mall in Auckland last week, the government said after it released more details on the attacker following the lifting of a court suppression order.

Court documents made public on Sunday identified the attacker as Ahamed Aathil Mohamed Samsudeen, 32, an ethnic Tamil Muslim from Sri Lanka. He had arrived in New Zealand 10 years ago on a student visa seeking refugee status, which was granted in 2013.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand authorities imprisoned a man inspired by the Islamic State group for three years after catching him with a hunting knife and extremist videos — but at a certain point, despite grave fears he would attack others, they say they could do nothing more to keep him behind bars.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand authorities were so worried about an Islamic extremist they were following him around-the-clock and were able to shoot and kill him within 60 seconds of him unleashing a frenzied knife attack that wounded six people Friday at an Auckland supermarket.

Three of the shoppers were taken to Auckland hospitals in critical condition, police said. Another was in serious condition, while two more were in moderate condition.

WELLINGTON, Sept 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) – New Zealand reported 49 new community cases of Delta variant today, all in the largest city, Auckland, bringing the total number of cases in the country’s community outbreak to 736.

Auckland has 720 community cases and the capital, Wellington has 16 cases, according to the Ministry of Health.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Micronesia President David Panuelo said Wednesday he’ll continue to walk around his island nation without fear, despite an alleged death threat against him over his government’s vaccine mandate.

A month ago, Micronesia became one of the few countries in the world to impose a broad rule requiring that all eligible citizens get vaccinated against the coronavirus.