Leader in Waiting - He is definitely National’s leader in waiting. Both Prime Minister Jenny Shipley and her Treasurer Bill English are shrugging off a pamphlet being handed around at National’s conference in Wellington over the weekend, that suggested Mr English should take over the party’s reigns. Political commentator Colin James is in no doubt Mr English is National’s man of the future. He says this can be seen in the huge difference in speeches given to the party faithful by Mr English and Mrs Shipley. Mr James says Shipley’s speech was insular and directed to those attending the conference while English’s speech looked outward to the public.

The body of the Hawkes Bay schoolboy that died after a rugby accident in Australia has been returned home. The 18 year old died on Friday after he was taken off life-support. He suffered a brain haemorrhage when tackling a player during a rugby game in Sydney last week. The team returned to New Zealand last night.

Over 350 toxic substances have been identified in human breast milk. Perfumes, suntan oil, pesticides and heavymetals. The findings come in a report commissioned by the Worldwide Fund for Nature and are based on studies of the contents of breast milk around the world. The substances were found to have accumulated in women’s bodies through the course of their life and then transmitted to their infants who were breastfed.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>