1Opposition leader Jim McLay has sacked National Party Finance Spokesman Bill Birch and moved him off the front bench in a bold Shadow Cabinet reshuffle, designed to bolster National's standings in the public opinion polls.

2Lindy Chamberlain's father-in-law says she is looking forward to a holiday with her family on his Canterbury farm after her release from prison. In Australia, criticism is growing ver the way the Northern Territory Government has handled the Chamberlain case.

3Prime Minister David Lange today launched a bitter attack on Air New Zealand pilots who are taking industrial action over their claim of a 30% pay rise.

4Around half of New Zealand's freezing works remained idle today, duie to a strike by shift engineers.

5Auckland's Mercury Theatre is expecting a loss of $1.2 million this year after a financially disastrous year.

6The Chase Corporation today made a bid for 20% of the Farmers Trading Company (FTC). The bid is worth around $50 million.

7Cambridge Police are baffled by the disappearance of a 64-year old woman, who has not been seen for almost two weeks.

8A leading British newspaper claims that French Defence Chiefs originally planned to sink the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior at sea, killing all fifteen crew members.

9Three United States Senators have arrived in New Zealand with a message of conciliation, in an effort to heal the rift between New Zealand and the United States ver the nuclear ships ban.

10National Party President Sue Wood has returned after acting as an international observer in the Philippines elections and says she believes Corazon Aquino will ultimately win the election battle. However, in the Philippines, confusion over the results is growing and both sides are accusing each other of cheating.

11Victorian firefighters are confident that they have brought three large forest fires under control.

12Winnie Mandela has predicted that the South African Government will free her husband Nelson mandela from prison, despite his refusal to renounce violence as a means of fighting apartheid.

13Rescue workers have so far only been able to pull two bodies from the tangled wreckage of two trains that collided in Alberta, Canada yesterday. It has been confirmed that at least 29 people died in the crash.

14Pope John Paul II held an open air Mass in Bombay today, during which he raised the controversial issue of birth control.

15Top Mafia godfathers faced trial in Sicily today, in what could signal the beginning of the end of the mob's stranglehold on the island.

16Haitian soldiers are rounding up members of the country's hated secret police, as rejoicing continues over the ousting of President Jean-Claude Duvalier (aka Baby Doc).