Author: CHARLOTTE GRAHAM-MCLAY Associated Press and

SYDNEY, Australia — The rare unfurling of an endangered plant that emits the smell of decaying flesh drew hundreds of devoted fans to a greenhouse in Sydney, Australia on Thursday, where they lined up to experience a momentous bloom -– and a fragrance evoking gym socks and rotting garbage. Tall, pointed and smelly, the corpse […]

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — The government of Kiribati is suspending all diplomatic visits to the tiny Pacific Island nation until next year and has cancelled some already planned, because it is in the midst of an election process that could run for several more months, an official said Thursday. The official in Kiribati’s foreign ministry […]

NGĀRUAWĀHIA, New Zealand — They came in their thousands in the freezing dawn, parking cars far away and winding down rural roads on foot, children riding on their shoulders. They arrived in mourning black with crowns of ferns and kawakawa leaves, bone carvings or wedges of deep green pounamu -– New Zealand jade -– resting […]

SIUMU, Samoa — Under clear skies, shortly after sunrise in the beachside fishing village of Siumu, Samoa, on Tuesday a dozen men and children prepared their small boats for a day at sea. But underwater a mile off the coast, lay the hulking shape of a sunken New Zealand naval vessel them is forcing them […]

SIUMU, Samoa — In the dark, dozens of people lined a narrow road near the Samoan fishing village of Siumu, gathering near a sign bearing a portrait of King Charles III and waiting excitedly for a glimpse of the real monarch. A buzz surged through the crowd as a motorcade appeared Wednesday, bearing the first […]

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Britain’s leaders will likely face uncomfortable questions about reparations for the trans-Atlantic slave trade at a summit of nations it once colonized, after Caribbean leaders said they would thrust the matter into the spotlight at the event in Samoa. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had said that compensation for slavery wasn’t […]