1More details have emerged today about how a dangerous psychiatric patient escaped from Porirua Hospitals secure mental health unit.

2The Military Government in Mayma has freed pro democrary opposition leader Ansan Suche from 19 months of house arrest.

3The student loan scheme is shaping up to be a major election issue with the student association criticising the options by both major politial parties.

4Business News

5Israeli Prime Minster Arial Sharon has arrived in Washington to discuss Middle East peace proposals as hopes emerge that a bitter stand off at Bethleham's church of the Nativity will be resolved.

6France has dealt a landslide defeat to Jean Marie Le Pen in the Presidential election returning conservative Jaque Cirac with more than 4/5 of the vote in an outpouring of opposition to the extreme right.

7The standard of the Dundedin urban passenger buses has been slammed in what some are calling a shakeup in the industry.

8News and Sport

9New Zealand is taking more Afgan refugees who have been shunned by Australia.

10The Prime Minister Helen Clark and the Indonesian President Magawate Sukamaputre have held a media conference. Clark is in Jakata for talks with the President as international tensions ease with Indonesia as East Timor moves to formal independence

11A controversial application by the Christchurch city council to discharge treated waste water into the cites Avon estuary has been granted.

12A phone councilling line for children has logged 169,000 calls in its first seven months, far more than organisers expected.