Tag: Featured

    New Zealand has voted to keep its current flag by 57 percent to 43 percent in a nationwide poll. More than 2 million people voted in the ballot to decide whether to keep the British Union Jack on their flag or replace it with a silver fern. The results were announced Thursday. The current flag has been the national symbol since 1902. It was up against a new design that was winnowed from more than 10,000 entries submitted by the public. Those advocating change argued the flag was a relic of the nation's colonial past and too similar to Australia's flag. Those favoring the status quo said the new design was uninspiring or an attempt by Prime Minister John Key to create a legacy.

    Victims of the terror attacks in Brussels that left 31 people dead are starting to be identified. The death of student Leopold Hecht in the bombing at Maalbeek metro station was confirmed with immense sadness" by the rector of Saint-Louis University in the Belgian capital. Branding Tuesday's atrocities "barbaric acts", Pierre Jadoul said: There is no word to describe our dismay in the face of this news. All our thoughts go out to his family and loved ones. Olivier Delespesse also died at the station. His death was confirmed by the French Community of Belgium, of which he was a member. Earlier came confirmation that a Peruvian mother of three-year-old twins was one of those killed in the double suicide bomb attack at Brussels airport. The girls are said to have gone off to ...

    Brussels bomb suspect in CCTV shot Brussels bomb suspect Najim Laachraoui is still on the run after the blasts which killed at least 34 people and left around 200 injured, including four Britons. An arrest in connection with the terror attack has reportedly been made in the Anderlecht suburb of Brussels, but local media reports that Laachraoui had been detained were later withdrawn. The 24-year-old, who has been linked to the atrocities in Paris five months ago, is believed to have accompanied brothers Brahim and Khalid El Bakraoui to Zaventem Airport on Tuesday, where they blew themselves up, killing 14 people. An explosion an hour later on a train at Maelbeek Metro station killed a further 20 people and sent Brussels into lockdown. Multiple explosions jolted Brussels, Be...

    At least 34 people have been killed and nearly 200 injured as terrorists inflicted a new outrage on a European capital. Coordinated bomb attacks on the main airport and Metro system in Brussels left a major city in lockdown once again less than five months after Paris was hit by a wave of deadly strikes. The atrocities on Tuesday, condemned as blind, violent and cowardly by Belgian prime minister Charles Michel, came after the arrest last week of terror mastermind Salah Abdeslam, who plotted November's massacre in the French capital. The terror group Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the attacks. Security was being stepped up at major transport hubs around the continent, with British police forces boosting numbers at "key locations" including ports, airport...