1A dramatic Armed Offenders alert in Warkworth has finally ended this evening after police forced their way into a house and overpowered a gunman who had been holed up inside all afternoon.

2An 11 year old girl is in serious condition in Christchurch Hospital after being shot in the back at close range while sleeping at her home in Hornby.

3The central North Island has finally begun to dry out after two days of torrential rain, causing widespread flooding.

4In Humberside in England, ten people were killed and at least thirty injured when a crowded passenger train ploughed into a light truck at a level crossing, causing the train to derail.

5Irish Republican Army (IRA) gunmen, disguised as butchers, have killed three police officers in a patrol car in a crowded shopping centre in Newry, Northern Ireland.

6The pro-Iranian Islamic Jihad group have released Father Lawrence Jenco, an American Catholic priest held hostage in Beirut for nineteen months.

7Averell Harriman, an American Democratic politician, businessman, and diplomat, has died aged 94.

8Television New Zealand's (TVNZ) Director of Programmes and Productions, Des Monaghan has rejected Whangarei MP John Banks' criticism of the corporation's Commonwealth Games operation.