1Fiji was battered by Hurricane Eric overnight, and now Hurricane Nigel is bearing down on the islands, with a third Hurricane behind that. The relief effort for Fiji is being coordinated from New Zealand.

2Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone arrived in New Zealand this afternoon for a three-day visit.

3The long baton dispute which flared within the police force this week is virtually over.

4The Chairman of the ANZ Bank says he expects companies to follow his bank's decision to restrict increases in directors' fees to whatever increase bank staff manage to negotiate.

5Unemployment continues to fall, although statistics released today reveal an increase in the number of people in various work schemes.

6Christchurch Police say the body of a young woman found on the West Coast yesterday had been stripped naked.

7Theft and damage to vehicles left on city streets at night is reaching epidemic proportions according to the Wellington branch of Royal Insurance. The company plans to begin charging policyholders a $300 excess for stolen or damaged vehicles that are not securely garaged overnight.

8Scottish Police are investigating a payroll robbery in which three people were murdered and almost $50,000 stolen.

9The Arctic weather in Europe has continued today, with London's temperature dropping to -3.7 degrees celsius. Paris recorded -14 degrees celsius overnight. More than 260 people have died in Europe during the freezing weather.

10The death toll in this week's Australian bushfires has risen to six. Several thousand firefighters continue to battle more than 100 bushfires across south-east Australia.

11An Afghan citizen, who was granted political asylum in New Zealand last year, has been to Pakistan to rescue his family who had fled there. This evening he brought his family back to Auckland, where they too will be granted asylum.

12The anti-apartheid group Citizens Association for Racial Equality (CARE) has laid a complaint against the School Certificate Board with the Race Relations Office. CARE says the Board is discriminatory against Maori and Pasifika students by not offering them the same assessments as Pakeha students.

13A dispute between the trustees of St Mark's Anglican School in Wellington and its school parent association over the dismissal of the principal last year, was heard in the High Court today.