Free Republic

An Indian court declared Himalayan glaciers “legal persons” under law in a bid to save them from global warming. The court’s two judges claimed Indian law must gives glaciers “living entity” status to keep them from melting. . . . The case was filed as public interest litigation by an environmentalist, and was not filed to address any specific harm to any individual. The court also extended the status of “living entity” to other natural wonders, including waterfalls, meadows, lakes and forests.

A New Zealand airport security dog was fatally shot after he ran onto the airfield — leaving many distraught over his untimely death. Grizz, a 10-month-old bearded collie mix, was training as a bomb-sniffing dog when he broke free around 4 a.m. Friday at Auckland Airport, according to media reports. Aviation Security Services tried for three hours to capture the pooch, who was not on the tarmac, according to reports. But officials said the prancing puppy’s escapades held up 16 domestic and international flights. “Auckland Airport staff directed police to shoot the Avsec dog, which was loose at the airport...

A river in New Zealand has become the first in the world to be granted the same legal rights as a person. The New Zealand parliament passed the bill recognising the Whanganui River, in North Island, as a living entity. Long revered by New Zealand's Maori people, the river's interests will now be represented by two people. The Maori had been fighting for over 160 years to get this recognition for their river, a minister said. "I know the initial inclination of some people will say it's pretty strange to give a natural resource a legal personality," said New Zealand's...

It's one thing to talk about changing allegiance to another country when a new president is elected. It's another thing to go ahead and do it. But that's exactly what seems to be happening, on a small scale, in at least in one distant corner of the world. In New Zealand, the number of Americans who applied for a grant of citizenship rose to 170 in the 12 weeks following the election of President Donald Trump from 100 in the same period a year earlier, immigration records obtained by The Associated Press show.

"It's not very nice getting a 'gut bomb' on your face." The devastating mass stranding event that saw more than 650 pilot whales beach themselves in New Zealand over the weekend is finally over, with 17 survivors making it back to a large pod of more than 200 individuals seen 6 km (3.7 miles) offshore. But things are just getting started for the clean-up crew, because hundreds of carcasses are now strewn across Farewell Spit beach, and the public has been banned due to fears of spontaneous whale explosions caused by gas build-up. "These things explode from the stomach, and...

My corpuscles are the youth of your future endeavors in me therefore as you receive communion by My Spirit and declare it in tongues truly I shall overcome the arsenals and attempts of the enemy to thwart My Will in you for you do not work for flesh and blood or a church Made out of Stone nor a shepherd born into sin but it is My Righteousness that saves you in an eternal manner not mankind or a shepherd’s staff and your True charity is to merely do My Will for in these footprints of obedience is where we...

It has been revealed that millions of New Zealand taxpayer dollars have been donated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) to Hillary Clinton’s charity, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), a non-profit organisation created from the Clinton Foundation with the stated goal to reduce HIV/AIDs in Africa. An MFAT spokesman confirmed to the NBR that between January 2010 and June 2016, $7.7 million of taxpayer funds had already been donated and another $6 million was to follow, keeping to a pledge to donate $13.7 million made by the government organisation in 2013.

President-elect Trump won't get any help from the State Department in implementing Israeli-relation policies opposed by President Obama before his inauguration. "The short answer is no," State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters. "You have one president at a time." Obama's team invoked that axiom to justify high-profile foreign policy actions in recent weeks, notably his decisions to sanction Russia over the election year cyberattacks and to allow the United Nations Security Council to condemn Israeli settlement construction. Kirby's statement extended that principle to barring any aid in helping the Trump team prepare to move the United States embassy to...

New Zealand's role in promoting a UN Security Council resolution against Israel may have some economic payoff, a foreign policy analyst says. . . . . ."New Zealand also trades with the Arab states, is about to sign a free trade agreement with the Gulf Co-operation Council. "There's huge profits being made to export lamb and other dairy products, other food products to the Arab states. "If there was to be a big trade payoff, the calculations would be in favour of going with the Arab and the Muslim countries." Meanwhile, a pro-Palestine group urged New Zealand to pull out...

In an unexpected escalation that was not the result of Israel's angry response to Friday's UN vote which passed a resolution condemning the country's settlements on occupied Palestinian territory, and which the US refused to veto, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Monday called on French Jews to leave their country to protest a Paris-hosted conference planned for next month aimed at restarting Palestine-Israel peace talks, Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth has reported.

The US publicly told its partners on the Security Council that it would consider each draft resolution on its merit, but says that it never indicated how it would vote– up until the vote itself. WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration insists it was disciplined in its silence over how it would ultimately vote on resolutions related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that ultimately reached the UN Security Council, where it holds veto power. Hours before such a vote was set to take place– on a resolution condemning Israel's settlement activity– one senior administration official told The Jerusalem Post that the president's...

The prospect of a Trump presidency led to some prominent Americans — including Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg — joking, or perhaps half-joking, that they would move to New Zealand. Ginsburg gave a nod to this splendid isolation during an interview with the New York Times in July. “‘Now it’s time for us to move to New Zealand,’” Ginsburg said her husband would be urging if Trump won the election. Billy Crystal had the same idea. “I might consider finding a nice little ranch in New Zealand,” he told Australian media earlier this year. (By the way, Billy, we...

A KIWI tourist says she was detained in Kazakhstan after immigration officials refused to believe New Zealand was a country, insisting it was actually a state of Australia. Chloe Phillips-Harris, 28, arrived at Kazakhstan’s Almaty Airport in May after being assured by the New Zealand embassy she would be able to enter the Central Asian country on her Kiwi passport. But officials at the airport told her she wouldn’t be able to enter the country without an Australian passport, the New Zealand Herald reported. “I landed in Kazakhstan on the last flight of the night, and I got to an...

<p>New Zealand Prime Minister John Key abruptly resigned on Monday.</p>

John Key has announced that he will resign as prime minister of New Zealand, after eight years in the job. Mr Key called it "the hardest decision I've ever made," adding "I don't know what I'll do next."

These incredible photographs show how New Zealand's 7.8 magnitude earthquake lifted the seabed two metres - and exploded through the sand. Dramatic aerial pictures reveal the scale of the devastation caused on the coastline north of Kaikoura, on the country's South Island. Scientists say the seabed lifted an estimated two metres on the foreshore and admit they have never seen anything like it. It comes as rain and strong winds battered central New Zealand on Thursday, threatening further damage - just days after the quake killed two people and sparked with huge landslides. More than 1,000 tourists and residents have...

President-elect Donald Trump has called New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key to pass on his sympathies for the powerful earthquake that killed two people. Key's office described the conversation on Wednesday as "very warm and cordial." The magnitude-7.8 quake that struck on Monday has left hundreds of tourists stranded in the coastal town of Kaikoura after landslides blocked off roads. The military is evacuating people in helicopters. Trump had tried to get in touch earlier in the week but Key had missed the call in the confusion after the quake. Key's office said in a statement that he had congratulated...

he powerful earthquake that struck New Zealand was unusual in that a big event on one fault may have immediately triggered a big event on a second fault, experts said on Monday. An earthquake of magnitude 7.8 pummeled central New Zealand at 12.02 a.m., killing at least two people, damaging roads and buildings and setting off hundreds of strong aftershocks. "When an earthquake occurs you are changing the stress field immediately, and if there was one fault that was pretty close to breaking, the energy from an earthquake can just tip it over the edge so that may have been...

Tsunamis reported. Shake map Reports pretty thin. Bad.

Seismologist says tidal surge of up to one metre has been recorded in North Canterbury region of the New Zealand's South Island * USGS says quake magnitude revised to 7.8* Authorities issue tsunami alert, say waves could be 5 metres* Thousands flee homes to seek higher ground* Reports emerging of injuries, so far no reports of deaths* In 2011, a 6.3 quake killed 185 people in Christchurch (Adds authorities warning first tsunami waves may not be biggest)By Charlotte GreenfieldWELLINGTON, Nov 14 (Reuters) - A 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck central New Zealand just after midnight, the U.S. Geological Survey said, causing...