New Zealand

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AP) — Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Friday that New Zealanders have become more engaged with the Muslim community in the year since a gunman killed 51 people at two mosques.

Ardern was in Christchurch attending events to mark the anniversary of last year’s March 15 massacre, which she has described as one of New Zealand’s darkest days. On Friday she attended a special joint prayer with members of both mosques that were attacked, and on Sunday she plans to attend a national memorial.

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AP) — Fifty-one people were killed and dozens more injured when a lone gunman attacked two mosques in Christchurch last year. New Zealanders will commemorate those who died on the anniversary of the mass killing Sunday. Three people whose lives were forever altered that day say it has prompted changes in their career aspirations, living situations and in the way that others perceive them.

Aya Al-Umari

Aya’s older brother Hussein, 35, was killed in the attack at the Al Noor mosque.

WELLINGTON, March 12 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand Finance Minister Grant Robertson will visit Australia's Canberra on Friday where he will meet with Australian political and business leaders to discuss the actions both governments are taking on the economic impacts of COVID-19.

"As we respond to this global health crisis it is important to keep in regular contact with our closest neighbor and trading partner," Robertson said in a statement.

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AP) — When the gunman walked into the Al Noor mosque, Temel Atacocugu was kneeling for Friday prayers. He looked up into the man’s face, thinking he was a police officer because of his paramilitary outfit. Time slowed. Atacocugu saw a puff of smoke come from the raised gun, felt a bullet smash into his teeth, and thought, “Oh, my God, I’m dying.”

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Days before the first anniversary of a shooting in Christchurch that killed 51 Muslim worshippers, a post appeared on an encrypted messaging app showing a balaclava-clad man outside one of the attacked mosques with a threat and a gun emoji.

The message was the latest in a number of threats against minorities in New Zealand, evidence of what experts say is an increase in hate crime and xenophobia since the mosque massacre by a suspected white supremacist on March 15 last year.

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (Reuters) - A man shot three times by an armed attacker who stormed a mosque in New Zealand last year says the incident has left him physically and mentally damaged for life.

Sheikh Hasan Rubel, 35, was offering prayers at the Al Noor mosque in Christchurch on March 15 last year when the gunman burst in and started shooting.

The attack, streamed live of Facebook, killed 51 Muslim worshippers and injured dozens of others in New Zealand’s worst mass shooting.

Two bullets ripped through Rubel’s pelvis while another one went through his leg.

3 March 2020; AFP: New Zealand police said Tuesday they were investigating a threat made this week against one of the Christchurch mosques where 51 Muslim worshippers were killed in a mass shooting a year ago.

Amid plans to mark the one-year anniversary of the March 15 massacre, police said the threat to Christchurch's Al Noor mosque was posted this week on encrypted messaging app Telegram.

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand has extended for eight days a ban on arrivals from mainland China, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday, carrying into its fourth week an effort to block exposure to the coronavirus.

Fears mounted that the outbreak would grow into a pandemic with disruptive and deadly consequences for the rest of the world following sharp rises in infections in Iran, Italy and South Korea.

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand's Christchurch held a grand memorial ceremony on Saturday in memory of the 185 victims spanning more than 20 nationalities, including 23 Chinese students, in the 2011 earthquake.

A 6.3-magnitude quake struck the city on Feb. 22, 2011. Then-Prime Minister John Key described the disaster as "New Zealand's darkest day."

Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel, in black at the ceremony, acknowledged families who traveled from other parts of the world to attend the memorial.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Drought, wildfires and now flooding have given Australia’s weather an almost Biblical feel this year. The good news is that a recent deluge in eastern parts of the country has drenched deadly fires and helped ease a crippling drought.

But experts say it will take some time yet to know to what extent the rainfall has replenished dried-up rivers and quenched parched soil in some inland areas most affected by the 3-year drought.