Newstalk ZB Headlines - 10am

WINZ chief executive Christine Rankin will be on her own if the State Services Commissioner finds she is guilty of any wrong doing in the chartered jet saga. The Commissioner says he expects to finish his inquiry in a matter of days. While Ms Rankin is effectively the Commissioner’ employee the buck does not necessarily stop with him, but rather with the public Service chief executive. The Commissioner is critical of Labour’s call to suspend Ms Rankin until the inquiry is completed.

National is playing down its squabble in Whangarei which has seen three key party officials resign four months out from the election. Whangarei electorate chairperson Paul Mitchell, his deputy and secretary have quit saying they have no confidence in the local campaign. However, National Party chief executive David Major says it is part and parcel of everyday politics and easily resolved. He puts it down to personality clashes within the Whangarei Electorate and that the matter is now being dealt with.

Problems for some Internet junkies with the lightening struck Auckland’s Sky Tower this morning. The lightening conductor on top of the tower was struck four times in half an hour in a spectacular electrical storm which swept the city. SkyCity says the conductor is meant to attract lightening and channel it safely to prevent a strike elsewhere on the tower. But the lightening has damaged a transmitter belonging to internet provider Ihug. The company says it has knocked out internet connections for its satellite Starnet customers and repair crews are out on the job now and hope to have it fixed any time now. The storm stretches from Kaipara to Hamilton and is fast heading toward the east.

© 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>>