Before New Zealand began its four-week lockdown to fight the coronavirus, a reporter asked Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern what would happen if an earthquake struck while everybody was sequestered in their homes. "Why on earth would your mind go there?” Ardern quipped back. Every year, the ...
People worldwide snitching on violators of social-distancing rules
One bar owner in Tulsa, Oklahoma, said more than a dozen motorcyclists showed up unannounced, but he served them a round of shots anyway to celebrate a birthday. Another live-streamed a drag queen show on Facebook while up to 20 people drank inside the ...
100,000 tourists stuck in New Zealand virus lockdown to leave
About 100,000 tourists stuck in New Zealand since it began a lockdown last week were starting to fly to their home countries Friday. The initial problem for many tourists had been that they were banned from catching domestic flights during the strict monthlong lockdown, which ...
New Zealand Rugby offers emergency funding to Super Rugby teams as officials take pay cuts
New Zealand Rugby will make an emergency grant of $150,000 to each of its five Super Rugby teams to help them weather the next three months while the southern hemisphere tournament is suspended because of the global pandemic. Chief executive Mark Robinson said the grant ...
Christchurch mosque gunman pleads guilty to murder and terrorism
The man who committed the worst atrocity in New Zealand's modern history when he slaughtered 51 worshippers at two Christchurch mosques unexpectedly pleaded guilty on Thursday to all charges. The attacks, targeting people praying at the mosques a year ago, shocked the nation and prompted ...
New Zealand declares national emergency to tackle coronavirus
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Wednesday declared a state of national emergency as the country prepared to go into a complete lockdown at midnight to combat the coronavirus outbreak. New Zealand's cases of the coronavirus surged to 205 cases as the government imposed ...
Australian soccer's A-League has suspended its season indefinitely, bringing an end to all professional football competitions in Australia and New Zealand until the COVID-19 pandemic passes. Football Federation Australia chief executive James Johnson announced the decision Tuesday, saying the latest measures imposed by the federal ...
Professional rugby union teams in New Zealand and Australia have ceased training as efforts to establish alternative domestic competitions after the suspension of Super Rugby failed in the face of government moves to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Rugby Australia hoped to launch on ...
New Zealand has passed a landmark bill that treats abortion as a health issue rather than a crime, a major reform in laws that have been unchanged for more than four decades. The reform passed through parliament late on Wednesday by a vote of 68 ...
Coronavirus cases balloon around the world as China recovers
As the rest of the world mobilized to fight the widening coronavirus pandemic on Saturday, China continued to ease up lockdown measures in its hardest-hit region, where the number of new cases has dwindled. The virus that first emerged in central China late last year ...
New Zealand cancels national mosque massacre remembrance over virus fears
New Zealand has canceled a national remembrance service to mark Sunday's first anniversary of the Christchurch mosque attacks because of coronavirus fears, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. "This is a pragmatic decision. We're very saddened to cancel, but in remembering such a terrible tragedy, we ...
A year after Christchurch massacre, New Zealand fights rising hate
Days before the first anniversary of the shooting in Christchurch that killed 51 Muslim worshippers, an image appeared in a post 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 ...
