1Australian Prime Minster Bob Hawke will arrive in New Zealand tomorrow on his first official visit.

2Protesters demonstrating against Fiji's military regime at Wellington Airport were left frustrated and angry today when the visiting Fijian Foreign Minister was whisked away through a side exit.

3A planned strike by domestic staff at hospitals and rest homes, due to begin at midnight, may be stopped by a Labour Court injunction.

4Construction sites throughout New Zealand came to a standstill today, as labourers began a 48-hour strike in support of a 14% pay increase. However, drivers voted to return to work today, clearing the way for talks to begin between their union and employers.

5A fundraising appeal has been launched in Hamilton in a desperate bid to save the life of a two year old boy, who desperately needs a liver transplant in Australia.

6A top Wellington surgeon is claiming the right to refuse to treat people suspected of having AIDS. Today new guidelines on the ethics of treating patients with AIDS was released, and have already provoked controversy.

7The first major School Certificate exam - English - was sat by 45,000 students today.

8The Government spent almost $41 million on getting advice from outside consultants in the first half of this financial year.

9Mortgage interest rates have begun to fall. Analysts attribute this to declining inflation and predict the downward trend will continue.

10The British Government's High Court bid to stop Wellington's Dominion newspaper from publishing further extracts of former MI5 agent Peter Wright's memoir Spycatcher has been unexpectedly adjourned until next week.

11Sharp criticism of United States President Ronald Regan is contained in a Congressional report into the so-called Iran Contra Affair.

12Iraqi planes are reported to have attacked and damaged an unfinished nuclear power station in Iran.

13In the past week eight Arab nations have restored diplomatic relations with Egypt, after Egypt gave an assurance that it would not allow Iran to intimidate the more moderate countries. Relations with Egypt were broken off in 1979 when Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty.

14The kidnappers of a five year old Spanish girl, abducted a week ago, have lowered their ransom demand to just over $8 million.

15The Prince and Princess of Wales have made an unexpected visit to Enniskillen, where an Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb blast killed eleven people just over a week ago.

16An American scientific group, based in Christchurch, has taken satellite pictures of a giant Antarctic iceberg that broke away from the main Ross ice shelf last month.

17Correction A correction to an earlier story regarding falling mortgage interest rates.

18The tiny Otago town of Lawrence is facing a crisis. Business is declining and now they are faced with losing theiri sole police officer. But Mayor Geore Smith, who has some renown as a butcher, is trying to lure an officer through his sausages.