1Hundreds of thousands of air travellers remain stranded across Europe and around the world, thanks to a massive plume of volcanic ash. Airports have been closed in Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

2Hundreds of staff from the ANZ bank building in Auckland's Queen Street have been evacuated after a bomb threat.

3House prices have hit a 20-year high for the month of March, but the market over-all remains relatively flat. Real Estate Institute figures show more than 6-thousand houses were sold last month, up from a low of just over 3600 in January.

4Business News

5The economic downturn is expected to have an impact on the Super V8 car race in Hamilton but organisers are still confident the event will be a success.

6The massive disruption to flights caused by a volcanic eruption in Iceland has brought back memories of a drama which unfolded on a British Airways flight in 1982.

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8Availability of broadband in country areas has more than doubled in the last three years but that's still not good enough for Federated Farmers.

9China's Prime Minister, Wen Jaibao has visited the remote region of Qinghai province to see the devastation caused by the earthquake for himself.

10Waatea News

11A Thai anti-government protest leader has escaped from a Bangkok hotel besieged by security forces by climbing down a rope.

12Tertiary Education Commission figures show universities and polytechnics have been carrying unsubsidised students and they would have been worth nearly $33-million in government funding last year.

13The long awaited United Nations report into the assassination of the Pakistani political leader Benazir Bhutto two years ago is highly critical of the military government of General Pervez Musharraf which was in charge at the time.

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15Hundreds of thousands of air travellers remain stranded across Europe and around the world, thanks to a massive plume of volcanic ash. Airports have been closed in Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

16With less than two months until the International Whaling Commission meeting, scientists are pitching a last minute bid to stop Japan's so called scientific research program.

17The polls have closed after five days of voting in Sudan's first multi-party election since 1986.

18A new deep-space rocket design and a long term plan for a Mars mission. President Obama's decision earlier this year to kill off America's next space flight programme just as the space shuttle approaches retirement has divided pioneer astronauts and dismayed communities reliant on space jobs.

19The Russian government is suspending all adoptions of children by United States citizens. The announcement comes after a seven-year-old Russian boy was sent back on his own to Moscow because his adoptive mother in Tennessee said he had psychological problems.

20Gordon Brown, David Cameron the leader of the opposition Conservative Party and Nick Clegg the leader of the Liberal Democrats argued about the economy and domestic issues such as immigration, health care and education. Note: Full debate available on VA 15827.

21Christians need to do penance that's the message from Pope Benedict to the faithful in connection with the sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church.

22Business News

23There was a carnival like atmosphere in South Africa as World Cup football ticket centres opened for the final phase of sales.

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25Focus on Politics: For years New Zealand's anti-nuclear policy has been an irritant in the relationship with the United States. That appears to now be history, with this country's anti-nuke credentials the reason why the Prime Minister John Key was invited to the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington earlier this week.

26Waatea News

27Spain's best known judge has appeared before the country's Supreme Court for the second time in recent months. Baltasar Garzon who first became known abroad when he tried to prosecute Augusto Pinochet has been accused of abusing his authority by dropping a fraud investigation into Santander bank on personal grounds.

28A midday Mass has been held in Wellington for the Polish President, Lech Kaczynski, his wife and the ninety-four others killed when their government jet went down while trying to land in Russia last Saturday.

29The Library at the United States Congress is to archive every single public tweet ever made.