Tag Archives: New Zealand

John Key, New Zealand PM Resigns

Posted on by
3

New Zealand prime minister John Key has announced a shock resignation because of family pressure. Key made the announcement at his weekly press conference this afternoon.

According to New Zealand, The Herald, the prime minister bowed out because his wife Bronagh asked him to do so. Key, his voice shaking with emotion, said he told his Cabinet of his decision this morning.

“This is the hardest decision I’ve ever made and I don’t know what I’ll do next.” Key cited family reasons for leaving, saying the job had required great sacrifices “from those who are dearest to me”.

His wife Bronagh had endured “many lonely nights” and his children Stephie and Max had been put under “extraordinary levels of intrusion”. Key met his wife Bronagh while attending Burnside High School.

The pair married in 1984 and have two children, Stephie and Max. “Bronagh has made a significant sacrifice during my time in politics, and now is the right time for me to take a step back in my career and spend more time at home.”

Bill English is expected to take over as Prime Minister and Steven Joyce is expected to take on the finance role.

The National Party caucus will hold a meeting on December 12 to decide the new party leader and Prime Minister. Key said he would support whoever the caucus chose, but he endorsed Bill English as his replacement.

Read More:

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/12/john-key-new-zealand-pm-resigns/

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key resigns

Posted on by
1

John Key, the New Zealand Prime Minister and leader of the National party, has resigned.

According to The Telegraph, announcing his resignation, Key said, he did not see himself as a career politician and had “nothing left in the tank”.He cited family reasons as one of the factors in his decision and had reportedly been asked to resign by Bronagh, his wife of 32 years.

His resignation will be effective from 12 December, when National MPs will meet to select a new leader.

 

New Zealand evacuates quake-hit town Kaikoura.

Posted on by
1

New Zealand rescue workers are evacuating scores of tourists and residents from the town hardest hit by a series of powerful earthquakes.

Four air force helicopters are now airlifting people out of Kaikoura on the South Island after battling strong winds and heavy rain earlier.

The town, northeast of Christchurch, has been cut off by quake-triggered landslides.

Hundreds of aftershocks have rocked the area as well.

The capital Wellington on the North Island continues to see severe weather on Tuesday with heavy rain and flooding.

Two people were killed in the 7.5 magnitude earthquake that struck the South Island early on Monday.

Meanwhile three cows that were filmed stranded on a tiny island have reportedly been rescued by a farmer.

Air Commander Darryn Webb, the acting commander of New Zealand joint forces, told TVNZ that they are airlifting approximately 200 people out of Kaikoura on Tuesday.

There are an estimated 1,200 tourists at the popular whale-watching spot, which has a population of about 2,000.

Two ships and other aircraft are assisting with the evacuations as well, said the New Zealand Defence Force. Prime Minister John Key said the top priority was to provide desperately-needed supplies to Kaikoura.

Police have warned that water and electricity supplies are running out, and hundreds remain in evacuation shelters and community centres, reports the BBC.

At least 1,000 are housed in the local marae, or Maori meeting place, and had crayfish – the town’s specialty – for breakfast on Tuesday, after local fisheries’ tanks failed with the electricity shortage, reported Reuters.

Local divers and fishermen are also reportedly working to relocate tens of thousands of paua – a type of mollusc – and crayfish back to the sea after the seabed rose out of the water by around 2m (6.6 ft).

Transport Minister Simon Bridges told reporters on Tuesday that road and rail access to Kaikoura will take “several months”.

Officials who have begun assessing the aftermath say billions of dollars of damage was caused, with major road and rail links severed.

GeoNet, a government-funded project monitoring earthquakes, said that aftershocks would continue over the next few months.

New Zealand PM Rules Out Ransom For Citizen Abducted In Nigeria

Posted on by
1

New Zealand Prime Minister, John Key, on Thursday ruled out paying a ransom as a long-held government standing for a New Zealander abducted a day earlier by gunmen in southern Nigeria.

He said at a press conference in Wellington that there was no chance of the government paying a ransom for the release of New Zealander being held hostage in Nigeria.

Key said the compromise would only put a bounty on the head of any New Zealander working in a volatile region and make the situation worse.

Gunmen took at least three foreign contractors, including one New Zealander and two Australians working for an Australian mining company early Wednesday morning and killed their driver on the outskirts of Calabar.

Key said it’s likely the kidnapping was random motivated rather than an act of a terrorist organisation.

“The kidnappers are yet to contact police or make any request.

Meanwhile, The Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said the Australian High Commissioner in Nigeria is at the scene while New Zealand has no diplomatic mission in the country limiting its capacity to coordinate the rescue.

He said the Australian mining company MacMahon, has been working with Nigerian government to resolve the situation as New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs was receiving updates on the situation.

Credit: NAN

Four Nigerians Jailed In New Zealand For Drug Trafficking

Posted on by
27

Four Nigerians- Nnamdi Augustine Iwu 36, Hyacinth Ochibulu 44, David Obiaga 44 and Ugochukwu Okpara 27, were yesterday June 18th sentenced by a High court in New Zealand to 15 to 18 years jail terms after being found guilty of importing and possessing methamphetamine, a banned substance, in New Zealand.

The Nigerians and a New Zealander who was sentenced to 9 years in prison are said to be part of an international drug smuggling ring syndicate.

Strong Earthquake Shakes New Zealand

Posted on by
1

No reports of major damage after quake strikes in same region as Thursday’s tremor that jolted buildings in Wellington.  A 5.9-magnitude earthquake has shaken New Zealand, seismologists say, panicking shoppers but prompting no reports of any major damage.

The quake struck at 3:36pm local time (03:36 GMT) on Friday, with its epicentre about 66km from the South Island town of Kaikoura at a depth of 55km, the US Geological Survey said.

The local GeoNet monitoring service measured the quake at 6.3 and said it was felt across the entire country, but was unlikely to cause damage because of it was so deep.

Stuart Grant, Kaikoura district council chief executive, told TVNZ if felt like two tremors in quick succession, describing the second of them as a “big jolt”.

He said the council building was evacuated as a precaution but appeared undamaged. The website of the New Zealand Herald newspaper cited Rachel Vaughn, public information manager for the Kaikoura Civil Defence, as saying that the quakes had left those in Kaikoura “scared and shaken up”.

“We got two very strong jolts followed by a lot of shaking. We went under our desks and waited for it to stop,” she told the daily.

“People were evacuated out of shops but they are going back to business as usual now.”

Friday’s earthquake struck in the same region as a 4.7 tremor that shook office buildings in Wellington the previous day. The quake also struck on a day thousands of people lined the streets of the capital for the Anzac Street Parade.

Friday’s parade is just one part of a busy week of commemorations in the New Zealand capital planned by a number of agencies including the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, New Zealand Defence Force and Department of Internal Affairs, the New Zealand Herald said. New Zealand is on the boundary of the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates, which form part of the so-called “Ring of Fire”, and experiences up to 15,000 tremors a year.

Credit: aljazeera