1Petrol prices are to rise by 6 or 7 cents a litre this year as motorists cover the costs of both capital finance and interest on the Marsden Point expansion site.

2Anti-nuclear protesters are promising tough action against any further visit of an American warship, saying they will not accept Government assurances that the ship is not nuclear armed. Meanwhile, cracks are beginning to appear within the Labour Caucus over the issue of American warships visiting New Zealand, despite their non-nuclear nature.

3The New Zealand Government will send a special taskforce to Fiji to assess disaster relief needs there in the wake of Cyclone Eric and Cyclone Nigel.

4The anti-apartheid movement Halt All Racist Tours (HART) says it plans to sue the Police for wrongful arrest and damages in the wake of clashes between police and demonstrators outside the Benson and Hedges Tennis Tournament in Auckland.

5The head of the Philippines Armed Forces, General Fabian Ver, has been charged in connection with the double murder of Filipino Opposition leader benigno Aquino, and his alleged assassin.

6A United States Navy reconnaissance plane with nine people on board is missing in the Pacific on a training flight from Japan to Guam. There is still no sign of an American military transport plane that crashed yesterday while flying between Panama and Honduras with 21 American servicemen on board.

7Forty people are feared dead in two airline accidents in Colombia.

8Freezing winter weather delayed the United States' first manned military mission into space. The space shuttle Discovery is now due to launch at 3am tomorrow (NZT).

9Soviet officials have confirmed that President Konstantin Chernenko is ill, but they say his condition is not grave.

10british television viewer have been able to watch a broadcast of Parliament at work for the first time. Cameras filmed in The House of Lords when it began its session today, and the transmission was carried simultaneously by the the BBC and commercial television networks.

11A five year old French boy and his mother have been allowed to touch each other for the first time in a year. He has been living his life in a bubble while being treated for an auto-immunity disease.

12Early this afternoon, patrons at a Christchurch tavern were able to watch a winter-time late movie screening direct from Moscow.

13A new venture in video entertainment, designed to improve children's literacy and communication skills, was launched in Auckland this afternoon. Video books are aimed at providing children of all ages with an educational alternative to watching television or playing video games.