AFP, Wellington

A pregnant New Zealand journalist who claimed to have nowhere to go but Afghanistan will be allowed to return home, after officials granted her an exemption from strict Covid-19 entry restrictions amid public outcry. Reporter Charlotte Bellis was working for Al Jazeera in Kabul when Afghanistan fell to the Taliban. She did not realise she was pregnant until she was at the media company’s headquarters in Doha, Qatar, where it is illegal to be pregnant and unmarried. After her request was turned down by New Zealand, she called senior Taliban contacts and was told she could give birth there.