Winebox High Court Ruling Fallout - An assurance on the latest findings of the Winebox inquiry wont be ignored. Two High Court judges ruled on Friday that certain key findings of Winebox commissioner Sir Ronald Davison were invalid. New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says he expects the judgement at the very least to be a signal to the Inland Revenue Department to start collecting millions of dollars in back taxes. He says they could start by collecting the $2 million owed from the Magnum transactions. But Prime Minister Jenny Shipley says it is not up to her to decide what Inland Revenue should do with the High Court ruling. She does expect however that the Attorney General and the commissioner of the IRD to look very carefully at Friday’s ruling and to decide whether any further action is required. She says there are obviously parts of the High Court ruling that Winston Peters will feel very pleased about.

Hurricane Brett Raises Alarm - Thousands of people are fleeing their homes with Hurricane Brett bearing down on the Texas Gulf. USA forecasters say it has the potential to become the worst storm in the United States in more than 30 years. Brett is packing winds of up to 220 kilometres per hour and a US weather spokesperson says the hurricane’s winds are not the only thing to be feared; the sea is expected to raise its level due to the storm surge by 10 to 15 feet. Heavy rains over the next few days are also expected to create major flooding.

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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>>