September 11 remembered

“September 11, 2001 changed the world we live in,” says National Party Leader Don Brash, reflecting today on the anniversary of the terror attack on New York’s twin towers.

“Three years on and the legacy of that awful evil is still with us. “We’ve seen more evidence of that in just this past week, with an attack outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta and the murder of innocent children by terrorists in Russia.

“New Zealand has not escaped. Two New Zealanders died during the attacks on September 11, while three died in the Bali bombing in October 2002.

“So far we have been spared a direct attack, but our safety in these uncertain times should not be taken for granted,” says Dr Brash.

© 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>>