Charlotte Bellis, a pregnant New Zealand journalist who was stranded in Afghanistan by her home country’s COVID-19 border policy, says she will return home after her government finally offered her a pathway back.
She said on Sunday that each day was a battle. Now 25 weeks pregnant, she said she had tried without success to enter New Zealand via a lottery-style system and then applied for an emergency return, but was rejected.
“We do acknowledge that Ms Bellis considers herself to be safe and did not seek an allocation on that ground,” Bunny said. “We have the residual discretion to grant allocations in rare and exceptional circumstances.” Bellis, 35, had worked as an Afghanistan correspondent for Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based news network. She resigned in November because it is illegal to be pregnant and unmarried in Qatar.
Hopping from country to country on tourist visas while she waited to have her baby would have cost money and left her without health care, so she and Huylebroek returned to Afghanistan because they had a visa, felt welcome and from there could wage her battle to return to her home.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
China reports 37 new COVID-19 cases among Olympics personnel on Jan 30China detected 37 new cases of COVID-19 among Olympic Games related personnel on Jan. 30, up from 34 a day earlier, the organising committee of the Beijing 2022 Winter Games said on Monday.
Read more »
Brazil sees more than 134,000 new Covid infections – latest updatesLatest on the global Covid crisis: 🇧🇷 Brazil sees thousands of new cases, hundreds of deaths 🇲🇽 Mexico reports more than 130 new deaths 🇬🇧 UK records lowest cases in over a month For more:
Read more »
New Jersey Gym owner who defied COVID-19 regulations calls probation sentence an 'absolute joke'Two New Jersey gym owners who kept their business open despite COVID-19 lockdown orders from Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy have been sentenced to one year of probation. One of them called the sentence 'an absolute joke' in comments to Fox News Digital.
Read more »
Anti-vaxxer tells supporters the new COVID antidote is in 'urine therapy'Urine therapy – where advocates encourage people to drink their own urine to tap into its redemptive properties – is among the latest, and a recent video calling the therapy the next 'COVID antidote' was viewed over 366,000 times.
Read more »
Olympics-China reports 34 new COVID-19 cases among Games-related personnelBEIJING (Reuters) -Thirty-four new COVID-19 infections were detected among Olympics-related personnel, the Beijing 2022 Winter Games organising committee said on Sunday, including Poland's short track medal hopeful Natalia Maliszewska. Of the total infections, 23 were among new airport arrivals, while 11 were people already in the 'closed loop' bubble that separates event personnel from the public to try to curb the spread of infections. The loop allows Games participants to move freely between their accommodations and Olympic venues on official transport, but they are not allowed to move freely in the city.
Read more »
COVID-19 live updates: New York City offering free home delivery of antiviral pillsLATEST: New York City's health department is now offering free, same-day, at-home delivery of COVID-19 oral antiviral medications, Mayor Eric Adams announces.
Read more »