The future of the Middle East peace process has been shrouded by an unauthorised missile test by Iran, accompanied by a warning to Israel that it would be destroyed if it attacked Iran. So why such a provocative move on the eve of international talks about nuclear disarmament? Featured in story: Dr Michael McKinley, Senior Lecturer in International Relations at ANU.

Today the first swine flu vaccine is being rolled out around the country, in the wake of a winter during which 170 people died from the new flu strain. This week the Wire ran an interview Meryl Dorey from the Australian Vaccination network. She claimed that the new vaccine hasn’t been tested properly and there is not enough evidence that it is safe. There are plenty who disagree with what she had to say, including former Federal Health minister Michael Wooldridge.

While Samoa is struggling to come to terms with the tsunami that devastated their island this morning and the koss of up to a hundred lives, concerns have been raised that Australia may not be ready for such an event on our own shores. The problem is that no single model can predict both the whole process of earthquake and tsunami generation, and if an an earthquake occurred in deep waters off the coast of Sydney, we may not be ready to the message out on time. Featured in story: Dr huilin Xing, Senior Research Fellow at the Earth System Science Computational Centre at the University of Queensland; Associate Professor of Geology and Co-Director of The Australian Tsunami Research Centre, Dale Dominey Howes, and Dr Ray Canterford, Head of The Australian Tsunami Warning Centre at The Bureau of Meteorology.

The Productivity Commission has released the initial findings of its inquiry into executive pay today. It says the way forward is not capping the excessive salaries of CEOs, but giving shareholders more control over the boards of companies. This is good news for shareholders, but bad news for workers who have faced pay cuts and job losses because of the financial crisis. While they underwent belt-tightening, executive salaries continued to rise. Featured in report: Robert Fitzgerald, Commissioner of the Productivity Commission, Chairperson Helen Dunt of the Australian Shareholders Association, and President of the ACTU Sharan Burrow.

Everyone wants to have their say on the River Murray. Indigenous voices have now joined in the discussion on what to do about our apparently dying river. Researcher and author Jess Weir travelled the length of the river and spoke to the aboriginal people who call it home. Their stories make up her book, Murray River Country – an Ecological Dialogue with Traditional Owners.