1Next month's wage round will come under additional pressure following today's news that real wage rates have dropped by more than 8% in the past year as a result of rising inflation.

2Pacific leaders are arriving in Rarotonga tonight ahead of the Pacific Forum, which will declare the South Pacific a nuclear free zone.

3Police investigating the Rainbow Warrior bombing want diplomatic clearance to carry out inquiries in French territories not necessarily confined to the Pacific.

4Journalists working on The New Zealand Herald have stopped work overnight due to an industrial dispute. There will be a reduced newspaper tomorrow, with little editorial content.

5Broadcasting Corporation Chairman (BCNZ) Hugh Rennie wants the Government to allow tax shelters for television channels so that more local programmes can be produced.

6A New Zealand police officer is flying to Dallas for the extradition hearing against former Labour Party MP John Kirk.

7Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Desmond Tutu says he will defy the South African Government's state of emergency laws and continue to attend funerals for riot victims, despite the Government's ban. The United States Senate has delayed the final vote on a Bill imposing economic sanctions on South Africa until next month.

8The Irish Republican Army (IRA) has set off its third car bomb within four days in Northern Ireland.

9Twenty-five thousand mourners have gathered for the funerals of slain Indian MP Lalit Maken and his wife Gitanjali, believed to have been murdered by Sikh extremists.

10Australian citizens Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers, two Australians sentenced to hanging after being found guilty of heroin trafficking in Malaysia, intend to appeal against their sentences.

11The New Zealand Admiral's Cup yachting team is currently in third place overall.

12The New Zealand Party will continue as a full--time political force, after conference delegates rejected recess proposals by former leaders Bob Jones and Malcolm MacDonald. The party will likely emerge from the conference with new leadership, a changed Constitution and a broader base.

13Police Commissioner Ken Thompson has warned that media organisations could be charged with obstructing the course of justice.if a media report jeopardises a police inquiry. Senior investigators working on the bombing of the Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior say there is a need for new rules to cover reporting of some events, as their inquiry has been compromised by newspaper reports.

14British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) radio and television news programmes could be blacked out next Wednesday over claims of media censorship in the United Kingdom. Journalists will hold a one day strike in protest at the BBC's refusal to screen a television interview with an Irish Republican Army (IRA) leader after pressure from Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Home Secretary Leon Brittan.

15Prime Minister David Lange is in Samoa tonight, on his way to Rarotonga for the annual South Pacific Forum. The key issue of the Forum is a draft treaty to declare the South Pacific nuclear free. There is general agreement on the treaty, however, ideological differences are beginning to emerge among the leaders.