WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump’s latest bid to impose travel restrictions on citizens from eight countries entering the US has suffered a court defeat. A federal judge slapped a temporary restraining order on the open-ended ban before it could take effect this week. The policy targets Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North…
WELLINGTON – New Zealand’s small nationalist party which holds the balance of power after an inconclusive election held talks on Sunday with Prime Minister Bill English and separately with the opposition Labour leader as both try to form a coalition government. New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has said he would only make a decision…
NEW YORK – Hurricane Nate has made landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) says. The storm, with maximum sustained winds of 85mph (137km/h), is moving north, and a second landfall is expected on the Mississippi coast later. Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and parts of Florida earlier…
NEW YORK – Two weeks ago, Lacy MacAuley was shocked when she opened her email inbox to find a message informing her that the US Department of Justice had served a warrant to Facebook to access her personal account. “I had heard that Facebook was fighting some warrants, but I certainly didn’t give it much…
LAS VEGAS – More than twenty people have been killed and at least 100 injured in a mass shooting at a Las Vegas concert. A gunman opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel toward an open-air music festival being held close by. Police said a suspect identified as a local resident,…
NEW YORK – Donald Trump’s first major speech at the United Nations has been denounced by some of the member nations he singled out for criticism. The US president included Iran among “a small group of rogue regimes”, and said the US would “totally destroy” North Korea if forced to do so. Iran’s foreign minister…
PYONGYANG – The United Nations has imposed a fresh round of sanctions on North Korea after its sixth and largest nuclear test. The measures restrict oil imports and ban textile exports – an attempt to starve the North of fuel and income for its weapons programmes. The US had originally proposed harsher sanctions including a…
LONDON – Islands in the Caribbean have made last-minute preparations for Hurricane Irma, the most powerful Atlantic storm in a decade, with officials warning of its “potentially catastrophic” effects. The category five hurricane, the highest possible level, has sustained wind speeds reaching 300km/h (185mph). It made landfall in the Leeward Islands and will move on…
TOKYO – North Korea has fired a missile over northern Japan in a move Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called an “unprecedented” threat to his country. The missile, launched early on Tuesday Korean time, flew over Hokkaido island before crashing into the sea. The UN Security Council is expected to hold an emergency meeting in…
NEW YORK – Donald Trump says he will close down the US government if necessary to build his wall along the Mexico border. The president told supporters at a “Make America Great Again” rally in Phoenix, Arizona, that the opposition Democrats were being “obstructionist”. During the 80-minute speech, he also took aim at the media,…
