1New Zealand rugby is in crisis following yet another amateur player defecting to the more lucrative overseas rugby league clubs.

2Analysis of the latest TV3 Gallup poll, which shows that support for the Labour Government is at its lowest level since polling began in November 1989.

3The Electricity Corporation (Electricorp) is being criticised for its record profit, which critics say has come at the expense of consumers.

4Three former Goldcorp directors have appeared in the Auckland District Court charged with misleading investors.

5Extra search teams have been called in to try to locate a deaf man missing in the Waipoua Forest in Northland.

6Air New Zealand is to lease two more Boeing 767s for domestic and international use.

7New Zealand's aging aviation radar system is being upgraded, promising increased air safety for travelers.

8Britain is turning to New Zealand for assistance in how to combat Mad Cow Disease.

9Eighteen Palestinians are dead and almost 800 wounded following two days of rioting in Israel, Jordan and the Occupied Territories. The latest violence was sparked by a deranged Israeli gunman.

10Extremists in South Africa - both Black and White - are casting doubts upon the Government's ability to control escalating racial violence. South African police have been unable to quell a racial war in the mining town of Trabong.

11In the Colombian cocaine capital Medellin, a gunman shot dead a Senator closely allied with a leading Presidential candidate.

12A Sydney man's ambition to drive his Volkswagen from near Melbourne to Tasmania across the Bass Strait has been scuppered by marine authorities.

13The strikes crippling Television New Zealand are spreading and by tomorrow there will be around 1500 employees refusing to work.

14Work has resumed at New Zealand Steel's Maioro iron sand mine near Waiuku following a decision by the Government and Ngati Te Ata elders to discuss ancient burial sites. The six protesters arrested last week have appeared in court and demanded that their cases be heard on a Marae.

15Traffic and shoppers in downtown Christchurch were stunned today to see a sea lion pop up out of the Avon River and make a beeline for the shops.