1The new Goods and Services Tax (GST) came into operation from midnight last night, bringing a 10% charge on nearly all goods and services, along with a reduction in personal tax rates.

2A dispute over spying charges that threatened to paralyse relations between the United States and the Soviet Union has ended with a flurry of announcements and activity in Moscow and Washington DC. United States President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev have announced that they will hold an informal meeting in Iceland next month. A look at how this news is being received in both Moscow and in the United States.

3The Combined State Unions (CSU) say tens of thousands of public servants may campaign actively against the Labour Government at the next election because it proposed changes to their pay fixing system.

4Prime Minister David Lange has asked for an urgent report on how sensitive police security information about his Wellington flat came to be found on a suburban street.

5Tasman Pulp and Paper workers are angry and bitter over a the signing of a document ending the ten-week dispute at the Kawerau mill yesterday. The regard the agreement as a stab in the back, having obtained nothing except the loss of ten weeks' pay.

6Newspaper publishers are relieved that their consignment of imported newsprint has arrived in Auckland today. Most of New Zealand's newspapers were forced to look for newsprint overseas as a result of the ten-week strike at the Tasman Pulp and Paper mill in Kawerau.

7Ian Smith, the former Prime Minister of Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe), believes sanctions against South Africa will only hurt the innocent. He believes the West has been seduced by Communist propaganda about South Africa.

8The news that New Zealand diplomats are close to clinching an agreement on mining and oil exploration of the Antarctic has drawn differing responses. Greenpeace has slammed the secrecy surrounding the mining negotiations and say it encourages mining on the continent.

9A $45 million fibreboard plant was opened today near Nelson, having been built in record time.

10After years of controversy, cartoned milk went on home delivery for the first time today, with Invercargill leading the charge towards cartoned milk.