1John Schuster has become the third All Black in three weeks to defect to rugby league.

2Ranfurly police constable Peter Umbers almost certainly knew Richard Thomas Lakich, the teenager arrested and charged with bludgeoning him to death with his own baton on the weekend.

3Two London-based Australians have died in a hail of bullets in The Netherlands, apparently shot by Irish Republican Army (IRA) gunmen who mistook them for British soldiers.

4There has been a third fatal accident in seven months on Australia's most fatal stretch of road - the Pacific Highway north of Sydney.

5The Commerce Commission has initially blocked a bid by Australian telecommunications firm OTC to buy Telecom, asking for more evidence that the sale would not create an unfair monopoly.

6Soviet shops have been swamped by panic buying ever since news broke last week about imminent price rises. Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was today forced to appear on Soviet television to appeal for calm.

7Soviet troops and Armenian civilians are engaged in a tense standoff after violent clashes in Yerevan, which killed at least six people.

8United States President George Bush is preparing for discussions with Soviet leader MIkhail Gorbachev on German unity and Baltic independence. These two issues are the likely sticking points in the US-Soviet Summit opening in Washington DC later this week.

9The Great Smokefree Workplace Week began today, with the aim of preventing smokers from lighting up.

10As the power of the anti-smoking lobby increases, Virginia's tobacco growers are finding the "golden leaf" is losing its allure.

11Colombia's new President elect César Gaviria has promised an uncompromising stand against the violence of the country's drug cartels.

12A New Plymouth farmer found an albatross in one of his paddocks, having been blown ashore during last night's storm.