1Northern Pulp, the biggest employer in the Far North, has been placed in the hands of a receiver. The jobs of 140 people are now on the line in a region already plagued by unemployment.

2Kaitaia police believe a house fire that killed a woman as she slept this morning may have been started deliberately.

3Two men who say they were savagely beaten by British rugby league player Bobby Goulding are hoping to reopen the case.

4New Labour Party (NLP) leader Jim Anderton has released an alternative Budget that would make life more difficult for half of New Zealand's taxpayers.

5Social Credit's alternative Budget was also released today.

6Opposition leader Jim Bolger has launched a counter-attack against some sections of his own National Party over the issue of debate over electoral reform.

7A Dunedin family's attempts to call an ambulance on the 111 emergency number failed because of a fault in Telecom's Dunedin exchange.

8Politicians on both sides of the House are unimpressed by a proposal to form a separate Māori Education Authority. A hui over the weekend proposed this solution as the best way to address Māori failure rates. Proponents say segregation is not the aim - rather to enhance what already exists in schools and in the community. A case study of Clover Park Intermediate School, which has a programme designed to suit the needs of its Māori students.

9Western leaders are about to begin their Summit in Texas, where emergency aid to the Soviet Union will be top of the agenda. France and Germany want to give Moscow $20 million, but are opposed by the United States and United Kingdom.

10The 28th Communist Party Congress is continuing this week with Party leader Mikhail Gorbachev virtually assured of re-election to the post. The Soviet leader's next major task is try to avert a miners' strike planned for next week.

11Thousands of Albanian refugees continue to occupy Western embassies in Tirana as Europe's last bastion of Stalinism looks likely to crumble. The United Nations (UN) has now intervened in the crisis to try to find a political solution to the threatened mass exodus.

12West Germany's FIFA World Cup Football (soccer) victory has brought West and East Germans together to celebrate. In four years time, the FIFA World Cup in the United States will feature a united German team.