PM Seeks Incis Inquiry - A promise that there will be an inquiry into the Incis debacle. The Prime Minister says she is already seeking advice on the best time for an investigation into why the police computer project ran to over $100 million before IBM pulled out of the project and why police demands were impossible to meet. Jenny Shipley says the public needs to be satisfied about what went wrong. She expects an inquiry would show who is to be held accountable for the mess.

Fire Fighters Refuse Security Checks - Professional fire fighters are refusing to undergo wide ranging security screening for the APEC world leaders summit meeting in Auckland next month. Union secretary Derek Best sees no problem with that. He says the security checks are unacceptable and fire fighters will not do them. Derek Best says that has been agreed to by Fire Service bosses and he is not aware of any objection from APEC organisers. If there is a problem with the fire fighter’s refusal that is with the Fire Service and APEC, not fire fighters or their union. Prime Minister Jenny Shipley plans to talk with APEC officials today.

Catapillar Raises Questions - And Auckland woman is demanding answers from quarantine officers after she discovered a live caterpillar in an imported nectarine. The woman bought the Californian nectarine from a supermarket in Henderson. She was about to bite into it when she noticed a dark patch on the outside. There was a caterpillar over a centimetre long, surrounded by its faeces. The woman says it was clear the caterpillar had been there for some time. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forest has asked her to put the fruit and the caterpillar in the post.

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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>>