Newstalk ZB Headlines - 8:30am

Downloading porn from a work computer could be a sackable offence. Employers and manufacturers associations are encouraging members to establish guidelines on internet use after heightened sensitivities of some of the material available. In the latest incident a Waikato school technician has been suspended after allegedly downloading porn on a school computer. Employers and Manufacturers Association spokesperson says employers should draw up rules to prevent problems for themselves and other staff because someone is accessing pornography.

Eighteen people have died in a watersporting accident at a Swiss resort. Police say the accident happened while they were navigating a river or waterfall, equipped with wetsuits and helmets and secured at times with mountaineering ropes. Six people have been taken to hospital, including one New Zealander.

The latest rural economic forecasts show make better reading for lamb and beef farmers but they are not so hot for wool and dairy producers. However prices for our main agricultural commodities are expected to rise in the medium term. MAF says the Russian and Asian economic crisis will have an effect for some time to come.

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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>>