1Figures show New Zealanders are spending more than ever, but retailers say they are still finding times tough.

2The Rural Bank is so overloaded with applications from farmers wishing restructure their loans, that it has adopted a new 'get tough' policy. Farmers with surplus cash will be turned down immediately, as will those for whom nothing can be done.

3Heroin addicts in Auckland and Dunedin are calling for greater access to methadone, a heroin substitute which they say helps them lead normal lives.

4The Fijian Tamils who have been confined at Nadi Airport are to be allowed to remain in Fiji for humanitarian reasons.

5There is a real possibility tonight that the United and the Soviet Union could reach agreement on eliminating medium range nuclear missiles in Europe, and that United States President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev could sign the agreement in person in Washington later this year. Shultz is now in Brussels to brief America's NATO allies on the talks, but it is uncertain how they will respond to the progress made.

6New Zealander Matt Thompson, the man behind the ill-fated Skybus Airline has committed suicide at his home in England.

7A suggestion that universal testing be introduced, has caused dissension among experts at a conference at Otago University to discuss how to deal with AIDS.

8Police are searching for the person who firebombed a Hastings police officer's house while his wife and child were inside. Both were unharmed.

9Canterbury wheat farmers are predicting that the price of a loaf of bread could rise to $2.00 by Christmas. They threaten that if their industry collapses, because they are not receiving the prices paid to the rest of the world, wheat will have to be imported.

10Letter bombs have been sent to the homes of two of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's top aides. Nobody has been harmed. Police believe it is the work of the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

11Another top British computer scientist has apparently tried to commit suicide. Six other scientists have recently died in mysterious circumstances

12The United States State Department confirmed today that yet another Marine Guard working at the United State embassy in Moscow is being questioned in the sex for secrets spy scandal.

13John Hinckley, the man who shot United States President Ronald Reagan, has been denied a temporary release from the psychiatric facility in which he is incarcerated, for a home visit, due to some new evidence that has surfaced.

14The daughter of former United States President Jimmy Carter, and fourteen other protesters, have been found not guilty for a demonstration that saw them take over a University building in Massachusetts.

15A 12 year old schoolgirl had a wish come true this morning, when she breakfasted with Prime Minister David Lange.