1Lake Wakatipu is rising and predicted to flood Queenstown streets overnight. 35-businesses within 312-metres of the lake have been warned to get ready for flooding expected to happen between midnight, and 9:00am tomorrow.

2Hundreds of mourners have packed a hangar at Ohakea Air Base today, for the military funerals of three airmen killed in the ANZAC Day Iroquois crash.

3New Zealanders are now being warned not to travel to any parts of Thailand as the violence and civil unrest escalates. One soldier was killed and many others injured after Thai troops and protestors battled in Bangkok.

4Business News

5Terrified bank customers and staff were held at gunpoint and threatened with a crowbar at the ASB bank in the Auckland suburb of Three Kings today.

6The Minister for Social Development and Employment has defended Work and Income's determination to get people into jobs, after it sent a 78-year-old woman letters urging her to sign up for work. The Labour Party questioned Paula Bennett in parliament over this, but it was another question that led to a spat between the Speaker and the Leader of the House.

75:30pm News

8The Australian Government is increasing their tax on cigarettes by 25-percent. The changes in Australia means smokers will have to fork out another $2.16 Australian for a pack of 30-cigarettes. It follows a move by the New Zealand Government yesterday to increase the excise tax here by 30-percent.

9The youth wings of National, Labour, the Greens and ACT have joined forces to oppose any move to raise the drinking age. The Law Commission has recommended that the minimum purchasing age for alcohol be increased from 18 to 20.

10The Reserve Bank has given itself extra room to begin hiking the Official Cash Rate later than previously stated. As expected it kept the rate at a record low of 2.5-percent today, though dumped its pledge to begin hiking the rate around the middle of the year, highlighting risks to the economy.

11Waatea News

12Napier police are warning residents to be vigilant about their home security after a teenage girl was sexually assaulted in her bed last night.

13Politicians are being warned that making professional charity collectors reveal how much of a donation they keep for themselves will have catastrophic consequences for fundraisers.

14NIWA is forecasting a milder than usual start to winter, but it looks as though there will be little relief for those in the driest parts of the country.

156:00pm News

16Lake Wakatipu is rising and predicted to flood Queenstown streets overnight. 35-businesses within 312-metres of the lake have been warned to get ready for flooding expected to happen between midnight, and 9:00am tomorrow.

17New Zealanders are now being warned not to travel to any parts of Thailand as the violence and civil unrest escalates. One soldier was killed and many others injured after Thai troops and protestors battled in Bangkok.

18Gerard Otimi, accused of running a passport scam says he was trying to help the thousands of overstayers in the country, who he says the Goverment is neglecting.

19Small New Zealand investors burned by finance company collapses say the Government's move to create a super regulatory authority is long overdue.

20A public health group says it would have been better for smokers health if the Government had given them time to quit before hiking the price on tobacco.

21Business News

22Israel's in the grip of its biggest corruption scandal in years. New allegations are surfacing daily about hefty bribes paid to secure a multi-million housing development in Jerusalem.

236:30pm News

24A second white supremacist has been jailed for the race-hate killing of a Korean tourist, who went missing while hitchhiking down the West Coast in 2003. Shannon Flewellen is being sentenced for the murder of Jae Kim at the Christchurch High Court.

25The interest rate the Greek government has to pay on its mountain of debt has risen sharply again; a further sign of how sceptical international markets are about the state of the country's national coffers.

26The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has written to members of his Labour Party apologising for calling a voter a bigot during his election campaign.

27The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has apologised to the woman he described as bigoted while wearing a live microphone but he may find some comfort in the fact he's not the first politician to make such a mistake.

28Waatea News

29For the first time in almost 20-years, the flightless kiwi is taking off overseas. The Auckland Zoo is sending five North Island Brown Kiwi to zoos in Germany and the United States to help them with their breeding programmes.

30A new star rating system for Dunedin student flats has been launched today, in what is a first for New Zealand.

31The United States Senate is preparing to debate a bill on banking reform after the Republicans dropped their opposition to discussing it.

32The President of the United States Barack Obama has wrapped up a three state two day tour of America's mid-West in the unofficial launch of the Democratic mid-term election campaign.