1Around 25,000 people demonstrated in central Auckland tonight to protest against the planned rugby tour to South Africa.

2Christchurch Police have sealed off a block in the industrial area as they try to defuse an unfolding hostage situation.

3After this year. there will be no University Entrance (UE) exam. Instead, the Sixth Form Certificate will be the only national qualification.

4 The Government has pushed its own interest rates above 19% in its latest stock tender.

5Much of Queensland has been cut off from the rest of Australia this evening due to a 24-hour strike by transport workers which is in response to the State Government's anti-strike legislation.

6A Soviet fleet is returning to its base in Vladivostok after maneuvers near Midway Island.

7Prime Minister David Lange has been called on to review the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty aimed at preventing France from establishing a large military base in New Caledonia.

8White South Africans have been warned to stay out of Black townships after a White man was set alight and five Black men were killed during continued riots. Meanwhile the inquiry into the Uitenhage violence is continuing.

9South Africa has announced it intends to establish an interim government with limited powers in Namibia. However it is excluding the United Nations (UN) recognised South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO), drawing international criticism.

10China plans to cut its armed forces by one million over the next year, saying this is a first concrete step towards world peace.

11The groups who support the All Blacks' rugby tour to South Africa are campaigning just as hard as those groups that oppose it. What are they doing? Who might benefit?

12A look at the plight of drought-stricken farmers in the Wairarapa, Otago and South Canterbury. The drought appears intolerable following rising interest rates and the end of Supplementary Minimum Price Schemes (SMP). Support groups for farmers are becoming a necessity.