A degree of indifference to mediocre debut

What a strange choice of stories for the first instalment of TV3’s new current affairs show Third Degree (Wednesday, 8.30pm). Former rivals Duncan Garner and Guyon Espiner came across like stand-up comedians as they stood the entire show passing comments on the stories and taking blokesy swipes at each other that made them sound like Waldorf and Statler, the old guys from The Muppets

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Pawnshops Thrive, Draw Scrutiny over Interest Rates

With banks reluctant to loosen purse strings and credit-card companies aggressively slashing credit lines, a growing number of consumers are turning to the once murky world of pawnshops for quick cash. “Loans are up 20% to 25%,” estimates David Crume, president of the National Pawnbrokers Association

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Go Ahead — Cry at Work

I was a 37-year-old senior vice president in charge of the consumer-products-and-publishing division at Nickelodeon, the children’s cable channel, in my office celebrating with a few colleagues the announcement of a huge, groundbreaking deal with Sony to create and market home videos of our hit shows, such as Rugrats and Ren & Stimpy. The phone rang

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U.S. pushes for answers over Iran nuclear counter-offer

The United States on Friday sought clarification from Iran in response to its counter-offer involving shipping low-enriched uranium for refining abroad, senior administration officials said. Clinton told CNN that Western officials were working to determine what the Iranians are willing to do — whether Tehran’s decision is final or an interim statement

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