New Zealand

PALMERSTON NORTH, New Zealand (AP) — How do you stop a cow from burping?

It might sound like the start of a humorous riddle, but it’s the subject of a huge scientific inquiry in New Zealand. And the answer could have profound effects on the health of the planet.

More specifically, the question is how to stop cows, sheep and other farm animals from belching out so much methane, a gas which doesn’t last as long as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere but is at least 25 times more potent when it comes to global warming.

WELLINGTON, Nov 2 (NNN-XINHUA) – New Zealand’s unemployment rate was 3.3 percent in the Sept, 2022 quarter, unchanged from last quarter, the country’s statistics department, Stats NZ said, today.

While the unemployment rate remained level, the underutilisation rate, a broader measure of spare labour capacity, dipped slightly to nine percent, from 9.2 percent last quarter.

“Unemployment and underutilisation rates have been sitting at or near record lows for more than a year,” said work and wellbeing statistics senior manager, Becky Collett.

WELLINGTON, Oct 29 (Reuters) - New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spent an extra night Friday at the country's research station in Antarctica after the military aircraft she was meant to be travelling back to New Zealand on broke down.

Ardern has been in Antarctica meeting with the country's scientists and visiting the sites of historical importance while promoting the need for co-operation in the region.

WELLINGTON, Oct 28 (NNN-XINHUA) – Burnout, depression and anxiety, are increasingly common among New Zealand doctors, which impair their ability to perform at home and at work, a common contributor to suicide risk, New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA) said.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Farmers across New Zealand took to the streets on their tractors Thursday to protest government plans to tax cow burps and other greenhouse gas emissions, although the rallies were smaller than many had expected.

Lobby group Groundswell New Zealand helped organize more than 50 protests in towns and cities across the country, the biggest involving a few dozen vehicles.

WELLINGTON, Oct 17 (NNN-XINHUA) – New Zealand recorded 14,311 new community cases of COVID-19, and 34 more deaths from the pandemic over the past week, the country’s Ministry of Health said today.

On average, new cases per day reached 2,041 in the last week. The country has seen the number of daily cases going down steadily from over 10,000 cases nationwide, in early July.

With the fresh cases, New Zealand has recorded 1,814,890 confirmed cases of and 2,065 COVID-19-related deaths, since the pandemic hit the country in early 2020, the ministry said.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Some 477 pilot whales have died after stranding themselves on two remote New Zealand beaches over recent days, officials say.

None of the stranded whales could be refloated and all either died naturally or were euthanized in a “heartbreaking” loss, said Daren Grover, the general manager of Project Jonah, a nonprofit group which helps rescue whales.

The whales beached themselves on the Chatham Islands, which are home to about 600 people and located about 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of New Zealand’s main islands.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday that her government will not pursue any moves to change the country into a republic following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Ardern said she thought New Zealand will eventually become a republic, and it would probably happen within her lifetime, but that there were more pressing issues for her government.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand removed most of its remaining COVID-19 restrictions Monday as the government signaled a return to normalcy for the first time since the pandemic began.

People will no longer be required to wear masks in supermarkets, stores, busses or planes. The last remaining vaccine mandates — on health care workers — will end. And tourists will no longer need to be vaccinated in order to visit the country.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — At least three people are dead after a powerful earthquake hit a remote part of Papua New Guinea Sunday morning, authorities say. Others were injured and infrastructure damaged in the magnitude 7.6 jolt that was felt across the Pacific country.

The three people died in a landslide in the gold-mining town of Wau, said Morobe Provincial Disaster Director Charley Masange. Other people had been injured from falling structures or debris, and there was damage to some health centers, homes, rural roads and highways, Masange told The Associated Press.