Patients To Be Quizzed - People 14 and over who visit the doctor may be quizzed about their alcohol and drug intake. It is a new initiative of the National Health Committee. The committee wants GPS to regularly ask patients about their lifestyle in order to identify potential health problems. The focus will be on alcohol and cannabis, the two most frequently used drugs in the country. The aim is for early intervention.

A late juror has caused problems at the Scott Watson murder trial at the Wellington High Court this morning. The court was to resume at 9am today with a link up to two witnesses waiting in London to give evidence via satellite television. However the juror had not arrived in Court before the scheduled 9 o’clock start and the witnesses were left waiting. The jury member arrive 40 minutes later .

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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>>