1A dioxin campaigner claims the levels of dioxin found in a New Plymouth park are the highest ever detected in New Zealand. Earthworks a month ago discovered a rusting drum in Marfell Park, with several more removed this week. They are believed to have come from the Ivon Watkins Dow chemicals plant some years ago.

217 students from Gisborne Boys' High School, two teachers and a parent are in isolation this evening in case they've picked up Influenza A H1N1 'swine flu' during a trip to Brisbane.

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4The Crown has presented its closing address in the trial of the man accused of raping and murdering Christchurch school girl Marie Davis; the 15-year-old has was last seen alive in April last year. The Crown says 39-year-old Dean Cameron raped and murdered her, wrapped her in bedding, and disposed of her in a river.

5French woman Veronique Courjault, accused of murdering three of her own babies and hiding two of them in the freezer is going on trial near Tours later today.

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7There are calls for the Minister of Local Government to clarify what he envisions the future role of councils to be. It comes after he recommended local councils focus on what he calls 'core services' as part of a review of the Local Government Act, without detailing what those services were.

8The politics of the Richard Worth saga today descended into a "he-said-she-said" dispute between Phil Goff and the Prime Minister over the timing of a phone call. The Labour Leader released telephone records today detailing the exact time that he called John Key to inform him of the suspect behaviour of Richar Worth.

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10The giant oil producer Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to pay $15.5-million US to settle a lawsuit which has been going on for 15 years. The company was accused of complicity in human rights abuses by the former military government in Nigeria.

11Anti-smoking groups say the world's first test to measure how likely an individual smoker is to get lung cancer could put smokers off quitting. The gene based test - being developed at The University of Auckland - provdes a personalised estimate of risk of lung cancer, combining the gene results with family history.

12The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has stared down a disgruntled group of Labour party colleagues to hold onto the leadership. He gave an impassioned speech calling for party unity, those wanting him out failed to get the numbers to oust him.

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14Dioxin from New Plymouth's old agrichemical plant has been found buried in rusting drums under a childrens playground in the city. A dioxin campaigner claims the levels of dioxin found in a New Plymouth park are the highest ever detected in New Zealand.

1517 students from Gisborne Boys' High School, two teachers and a parent are in isolation this evening in case they've picked up Influenza A H1N1 'swine flu' during a trip to Brisbane. The Ministry of Health in the last hour have confirmed another three cases in Wellington.

16Swine flu is still on the rise in Australia with New Zealand health officials saying it hasn't peaked there yet. The number of cases in Australia is now past 1200 with over one-thousand of those in the state of Victoria.

17The country's largest Primary Health Organisation says the health system is failing Asian immigrants. Partnership Health Canterbury says many don't know how to go about seeing a GP, with some even returning home to seek help.

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19Anti-smoking groups say the world's first test to measure how likely an individual smoker is to get lung cancer could put smokers off quitting. The gene based test - being developed at The University of Auckland - provdes a personalised estimate of risk of lung cancer, combining the gene results with family history.

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21Former US Vice-President Al Gore was "held back" from travelling to North Korea to negotiate for the release of his two employees, the journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee. Both journalists have just been sentenced to 12-years inprisonment in a North Korean labour camp.

22A Brazilian search team has recovered a large tail section of the Air France jet that crashed a week ago over the Atlantic with 228 people on board. The Brazilian military has released images of divers securing the tail fun, marked with Air France colours.

23California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has unveiled a plan to save money by phasing out school textbooks in favour of using the internet. California has a major budget deficit of $24.3-billion US putting the Republican governor under pressure to cut hundreds of millions of state spending.

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25The European Union parliament vote in Britain saw the British Nationalist Party, a right wing party which some critics liken to the Nazi party, win seats for the first time.

26Recent figures from the Ministry of Justice show that while youth offending has decreased, Maori teenagers remain three times more likely to be apprehended by the police than their Pakeha or Pacific Island counterparts.

27On the streets of urban America, nostalgia and the sheer challenge is prompting a grass-roots affection for so-called fixed gear bikes with no brakes.