1Southland and central Otago have experienced a day of heavy flooding, with people evacuated from their homes, communications lost and some stock losses. There has been bitter criticism of the Government for failing to provide sufficient flood protection to the region.

2A Japanese squid fishing boat is making its way into Wellington tonight, after a collision with a Taiwanese boat off the North Otago coast> The Taiwanese vessel capsized and sank, but all sixteen crewmen were safely transferred onto the Japanese boat.

3Firefighters are trying to work out how to clean up around 50,000 litres of herbicide, caught in a blaze which destroyed an Onehunga warehouse. The depot was a furniture removal company and hundreds of families have lost all of their possessions.

4Hundreds of miners in State-owned coal mines are to be told to stay home from next week on full pay. Redundancies in the mining sector will be announced on Tuesday, and these are the group who will be told to go home, in an effort to prevent any unrest or trouble.

5Sir John Hoskins, a former top advisor to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and an outspoken advocate of selling off State-owned businesses in the United Kingdom, says that only private enterprise can fully benefit the consumer.

6Trading bank staff around New Zealand are divided over a union recommendation that they accept a 7.9% pay increase.

7Harbour workers have voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action in support of their wage claim, gave fourteen days notice of a strike last week.

8Electricity workers are threatening industrial action over a dispute involving union bargaining rights with the new Electricity Corporation.

9Finance MInister Roger Douglas has delivered a blunt warning to New Zealand's business leaders today - they are mistaken if they are expecting an election year handout from the Government and if they do not do more to control prices, they are risking both their firms and their employees.

10The Dutch company that is trying to salvage the sunken ferry Herald of Free Enterprise off the Belgian port of Zeebrugge says the ship may be righted within a week if the good weather holds.

11The Roman Catholic Church has released a major policy statement on the subject of artificial conception, saying that everything from in vitro fertilisation (IVF) to surrogate motherhood is unacceptable. The Vatican says "scientists should not be doing God's work".

12The giant, multi-national company Comalco says its offer to organise a joint venture to buy the Manapouri Power Station from the Government is genuine, and not just a political ploy.

13The dire consequences of a Mediterranean Fruit Fly being found in New Zealand were brought home to Ministry of Agriculture (MAF) staff and the public in a training exercise in Auckland today.

14The Norwegian Antarctic expedition, Ninety Degrees South arrived back in Lyttelton today after failing to reach its goal of the South Pole.