Pregnant New Zealand journalist in Afghanistan can go home

By NICK PERRY
Associated Press

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — 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 offered her a pathway back. The government offer amounted to a backdown by New Zealand after officials had earlier insisted that Charlotte Bellis needed to reapply for a spot in the country’s bottlenecked quarantine hotels. Bellis said she was excited to be heading home in March and to be “surrounded by family and friends at such a special time.” Her case had quickly becoming an embarrassment to New Zealand, which has thousands of citizens waiting abroad for space to open in the military-run border quarantine hotels.