WELLINGTON: New Zealand’s Maori king has refused to meet Prince William during a royal tour next month, with his office saying yesterday he was “not a carnival act” for visiting dignitaries.
King Tuheitia’s office rejected the offer, arguing the 90 minutes allotted for the visit to the Maori leader’s base in the North Island was not long enough for proper protocols to be observed.
Romania govt wins trust vote
BUCHAREST: Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta won a confidence vote in parliament yesterday, securing a new mandate to push through a series of IMF-backed reforms aimed at speeding up growth in the European Union’s second-poorest country.
Ponta’s Social Democrat-led government won a vote in both houses by a combined 346 votes to 192, having partly restored its majority with new allies following the departure last week of the Liberal party.
Pistorius case: Media warned
PRETORIA: The judge in the murder trial of South African track star Oscar Pistorius warned the media to behave yesterday after a local television station leaked a photo of the state’s first witness, who had asked that her image not be broadcast.
The warning was one several dramatic moments in the trial’s second day that saw a distraught Pistorius bury his head in his hands when the court heard details from the post mortem of his slain girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.
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