1The Department of Labour is staying silent over a review of its services that will be announced tomorrow.

2Justice Minister Geoffrey Palmer says New Zealand's commercial practices are out of step with the rest of the world, and he is targeting insider traders who he believes must be penalised.

3The Gulf tanker war escalated today with Iranian attacks on Greek and Norwegian ships. United Nations (UN) Secretary General Perez de Cuellar has made another strong plea for an end to the long-running Iran-Iraq War following new reports of chemical atrocities.

4The United States has sent a strong message to Panama's military forces to get rid of General Manuel Noriega.

5France's Socialist President Francois Mitterand has announced he will stand for a second term.

6The Government has moved to inject some confidence in the rules governing sharemarket transactions in an effort to produce a more informed market, with greater disclosure of significant shareholdings and combating insider trading. Analysis of the proposed changes.

7Big-time criminals have developed highly organised methods of defrauding Inland Revenue (IRD) of millions of dollars through false GST claims. Despite assertions that the IRD is on top of the problem, police believe that GST fraud has replaced robbery and drugs in the criminal portfolios of many underworld figures.

8Worldwatch An estimated 5000 people are believed to have died in the cyanide bombing of the town of Halabjah in Iraq, a Kurdish peasant town that had been seized by Iran. Iraq also claims that Iran dropped chemical bombs in three other towns inside its border today.

9Worldwatch The BBC, ITN and Irish Television are all refusing to surrender to police untransmitted video footage of scenes preceding last week's murder of two soldiers by an IRA funeral mob. The broadcasters say thay surrendering the footage would put their correspondents and camera crews at risk.

10Worldwatch South Africa's Government is on a collision course with the nation's churches, representing around half of South Africa's 32 million people. It has banned an anti-apartheid newspaper funded by the Catholic Church and accused beloved Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town Archbishop Desmond Tutu of preaching revolution.

11Worldwatch Protests continue in Panama tonight, where the Opposition is pressing ahead with a widespread strike after rejecting a proposal by military strongman General Manuel Noriega to step down before next year's elections.

12Worldwatch Nicaragua's warring Sandinista Government and Contra rebels appear to be making progress in talks to find a resolution in their long-running conflict.

13Worldwatch British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher today ordered a grounds keeper to throw rubbish all over St James's Park, so she and her Ministers could come and clean it up. It was all in aid of the launch of an Anti-Litter campaign.