1Five hundred jobs have been lost with the closure of the beef chain of the Westfield freezing works.

2The Department of Health is to cut 150 jobs from its head office in Wellington. Remaining staff will have to reapply for new positions.

3Air New Zealand cabin staff grounded all domestic flights and outgoing international flights between midnight last night and midnight tonight.

4Sixty-four ships are now stranded at ports around New Zealand due to the watersiders' strike.

5The collapse of Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has left small investors angry and uncertain now that their savings have been frozen.

6Glen McAllister, the Cathedral Square killer, has been revealed to have been a Satanist and sick of living, according to his brother.

7After long delays, trains carrying the latest mass exodus of refugees from East Germany have begun arriving in the West. However a number of desperate East Germans crowded the tracks and were hurt as they tried to board the trains.

8The Government is considering what options it can take to support the Greenpeace campaign against drift-netting.

9Opposition leader Jim Bolger has promoted ten of his junior MPs to key positions heading Caucus committees charged with finalising the party's election policies.

10The United States has successfully landed its biggest plane, the Galaxy, at McMurdo Sound in Antarctica.

11English comedian Graham Chapman, one of the original stars of Monty Python 's Flying Circus, has died aged 48.

12Self-proclaimed megastar Dame Edna Everage found herself upstaged by her sidekick, drab Madge from Palmerston North, at her book launch in London today.