Obama

The former US President leaves the country this afternoon and heads to Australia, where he will meet with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

This morning, Mr Obama had brunch in Auckland with 20 members of the Wāhine Toa group.

One of the women, Deidre Otene, said Mr Obama may be a celebrity, but he came across as incredibly genuine and someone who is trying to make a change in the world.

They talked about his charitable Obama Foundation and what it is trying to achieve, she said.

There has been speculation for weeks that Mr Obama was coming to New Zealand, and it has been announced he will speak at a New Zealand-United States Council event on 22 March.

"President Obama's presidency had an extraordinary impact on the world and during his service, New Zealand's deep friendship with the United States was strengthened politically, culturally, in trade and investment, innovation and security," council chairman Leon Grice said.

Obama, who is traveling to Spain from the NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland, cut a day off his visit after the shooting death of five police officers in Dallas and he will come back to the U.S. on Sunday instead of Monday as had been planned.

White House officials said Obama is visiting Spain to demonstrate its importance as a NATO ally. With that in mind, the President will tour the U.S. Naval Station in Rota, Spain, where four U.S. Navy vessels are stationed to bolster NATO security.

"The President will make an historic visit to Hiroshima with Prime Minister [Shinzo] Abe to highlight his continued commitment to pursuing the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons," spokesman Josh Earnest said.

The announcement comes after months of rumours in the US and Japan that the President, a Nobel peace laureate, would make a visit to the city devastated in the final days of World War II.

Mr Obama will visit central Japan in late May for a Group of Seven summit. Before that, he will head to Vietnam, the White House said.

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National Security Council spokesman Ned Price says Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali was traveling in a vehicle near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul when he was killed Tuesday.

As the senior deputy to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, al-Hayali was the primary coordinator for moving large amounts of weapons, explosives, vehicles and people between Iraq and Syria.