PM Suspicious of Cancer Cure Claim - Suspicions from the Prime Minister about the hype surrounding a possible cure for cancer. Jenny Shipley says as a former Minister of Health, the number of things about the announcement have pushed her alert button. Researchers in Australia are about to begin human trials of the green muscle extract which they say has killed cancer cells in the laboratory. Mrs Shipley says it is an exciting prospect, but she is suspicious that the announcement came as breaking news on Friday night, when the extract was to go on sale Monday morning. She says it sounded more like a well orchestrated PR campaign.

Y2K Worries - Worries that people fearing chaos at the end of the year are stockpiling large amounts of petrol and money. The stockpiling follows the launch of the Y2K readiness commission information programme. It advises people to have on hand a number of essentials to last three days in case of computer problems at the turn of the century. Insurance Council chief executive, Chris Ryan says storing petrol is extremely dangerous and could mean people are not covered by insurance. As far as storing cash is concerned that is just as dangerous. He says cash draws burglars, and many policies become null and void if large sums of cash are kept on a property.

Claim Enters Final Week - The Hauraki Maori Trust Board begins its final week of claims before the Waitangi Tribunal today. The claims are the largest and most comprehensive in the North Island. They include ownership of all minerals including gold and silver, and ownership of foreshore and bed of the Hauraki Gulf. The hearing of the claims began in September last year.

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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>>