New Zealand knows of Al-Qaeda-trained activists within the country who need to be monitored, Prime Minister John Key said Thursday amid debate on the need for stronger spy laws. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Hundreds of jubilant gay-rights advocates celebrated at New Zealand‘s Parliament on Wednesday as the country became the 13th in the world and the first in the Asia-Pacific region to legalize same-sex marriage.
Lawmakers voted 77 to 44 in favor of the gay-marriage bill on its third and final reading.
People watching from the public gallery and some lawmakers immediately broke into song after the result was announced, singing the New Zealand love song “Pokarekare Ana” in the indigenous Maori language.
“For us, we can now feel equal to everyone else,” said Tania Penafiel Bermudez, a bank teller who said she already considers herself married to partner Sonja Fry but now can get a certificate to prove it. “This means we can feel safe and fair and right in calling each other wife and wife.”
In one of several speeches that ended in a standing ovation, bill sponsor Louisa Wall told lawmakers the change was “our road toward healing.”
“In our society, the meaning of marriage is universal — it’s a declaration of love and commitment to a special person,” she said. She added that “nothing could make me more proud to be a New Zealander than passing this bill.”
Lawmakers from most political parties were encouraged by their leaders to vote as their conscience dictated rather than along party lines. Although Wall is from the opposition Labour Party, the bill also was supported by center-right Prime Minister John Key.
“In my view, marriage is a very personal thing between two individuals,” Key said. “And, in the end, this is part of equality in modern-day New Zealand.”
Since 2005, New Zealand has allowed civil unions, which confer many legal rights to gay couples. The new law will allow gay couples to jointly adopt children for the first time and will also allow their marriages to be recognized in other countries. The law will take effect in late August.
“This is really, really huge,” said Jills Angus Burney, a lawyer who drove about 90 minutes to Parliament to watch the vote with her partner, Deborah Hambly, who had flown in from farther afield. “It’s really important to me. It’s just unbelievable.”
Burney, a Presbyterian, said she and Hambly want to celebrate
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/jnImSCfRp-M/
The New Zealand city of Christchurch on Friday marked the second anniversary of an earthquake that destroyed thousands of homes and killed 185 people.
Several hundred people gathered for a memorial service in Latimer Square, near where 115 died when a six-story office building collapsed during the magnitude-6.1 quake. Others placed flowers in road cones or tossed them into the Avon River to commemorate those who died.
Speaking at the event, Prime Minister John Key focused on rebuilding efforts. He said he understands there’s frustration at the time it’s taking to get homes rebuilt, but that in a few years, Christchurch will be “one of the best and most livable cities in the world.”
People around New Zealand observed two minutes’ silence at 12:51 p.m., the time the quake struck.
