New Zealand

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Several hundred people in New Zealand were evacuated from their homes Monday with some recounting dramatic helicopter rescues as heavy rain caused widespread flooding in the Canterbury region.

Authorities declared a state of emergency after some places received as much as 40 centimeters (16 inches) of rain over the weekend and into Monday. Forecasters warned of possible heavy rain through Monday evening before conditions improved.

The military helped evacuate more than 50 people including several overnight in an NH-90 military helicopter.

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AP) — Growing friction with China and how to reopen borders after the pandemic will likely be among the topics discussed by the leaders of Australia and New Zealand in their first face-to-face meeting since the coronavirus outbreak prompted both countries to close their borders.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison arrived in the tourist resort of Queenstown for an overnight visit Sunday. He greeted his New Zealand counterpart Jacinda Ardern with a traditional Maori hongi, in which the pair pressed noses together.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Children’s advocate Cindy Kiro said Monday she hopes to inspire Maori girls after becoming the first Indigenous woman appointed to the role of governor-general.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced she had picked Kiro for the largely ceremonial role as Queen Elizabeth II’s representative, and that the queen had approved.

Under New Zealand’s constitutional system, the British monarch remains the nation’s head of state although doesn’t wield any real day-to-day power.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Authorities said Friday they feared for the lives of five people who leapt from their fishing boat near Fiji earlier this week after alleged violence on board.

A sixth crew member who abandoned the vessel was found alive Thursday on an overturned life raft, while two more people who had remained aboard the fishing boat were due to be picked up by a military patrol boat.

The Fiji navy said it was working with police to sort through the series of events that had occurred aboard the Tiro II, a longline tuna boat.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Two years after a white supremacist in New Zealand livestreamed the slaughter of 51 Muslim worshippers on Facebook, French President Emmanuel Macron says the internet continues to be be used by terrorists as a weapon to propagate hate.

Macron and other leaders from tech giants and governments around the world — including the U.S. for the first time — gathered virtually on Saturday to find better ways to stop extremist violence from spreading online, while also respecting freedom of expression.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Some wealthy nations that were most praised last year for controlling the coronavirus are now lagging far behind in getting their people vaccinated — and some, especially in Asia, are seeing COVID-19 cases grow.

In Japan, South Korea and New Zealand, the vaccination rates are languishing in the single figures. That is in sharp contrast to the U.S., where nearly half of all people have gotten at least one shot, and Britain and Israel, where rates are even higher.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Shoppers and staff at a New Zealand supermarket were being praised for their bravery Monday after authorities said they managed to stop a frenzied man from hurting others after he stabbed four people in a random attack, critically wounding three of them.

New Zealand Police Superintendent Paul Basham said he’d watched CCTV footage of the attack at a Countdown supermarket in the city of Dunedin and the actions of the bystanders in detaining the man until police arrived was “nothing short of heroic.”

Auckland, May 9 (PTI) A group of New Zealand cricketers and coaches, who were involved in the now-suspended IPL, arrived home by a private jet while another lot is expected to land here on Sunday.

Cricketers Trent Boult, Finn Allen, Jimmy Neesham, Adam Milne and Scott Kuggeleijn, coaches and former players James Pamment and Shane Bond, and Royal Challengers Bangalore's director of cricketing operations Mike Hesson landed here late on Saturday night.

(Reuters) --- New Zealand wants a more mature relationship with China that goes beyond trade ties and gives room for disagreement, particularly on issues of human rights, the Pacific nation's foreign minister said on Friday.

Nanaia Mahuta's comments come after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said this week that differences with its top trading partner were getting harder to reconcile, and the country's parliament unanimously declared human rights abuses were taking place against Uyghur people in China's Xinjiang region, angering Beijing. 

AUCKLAND, New Zealand, May 3 (Xinhua) -- China and New Zealand had given invaluable support to each other in the past years, and can foster new growth engines in health care, economy and climate change, said Chinese ambassador to New Zealand Wu Xi at the China Business Summit 2021 on Monday.

Delivering her keynote speech to the summit, Wu Xi talked about the long history of friendship between China and New Zealand.