PM congratulates President Bush

Prime Minister Helen Clark today congratulated United States President George Bush on his election victory.

Helen Clark said it was a clear-cut result, with President Bush gaining a 51 per cent share of the popular vote.

“I congratulate President Bush on winning a second term, and I look forward to the New Zealand Government continuing its good relationship with President Bush and his administration,” Helen Clark said.

“Our two countries work together on a range of issues and I expect it will now be business as usual.

“I have established a good personal relationship with President Bush, and key ministers have also got to know their counterparts well. I expect those solid ties to be further developed during President Bush’s second term.

“I look forward to conveying my congratulations to President Bush personally at the APEC leaders’ summit in Santiago later this month.”

Helen Clark said she would be sending a letter of congratulations to President Bush today.

© 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>>