1The Government has confirmed that a new harbour crossing is part of a $10 billion transport package for Auckland.

2The Ikaroa Rawhiti by-election tomorrow is no longer expected to be an easy win for Labour.

3The first poll since Kevin Rudd's takeover as Australian Prime Minister has revealed a huge boost in the polls for Labor, but still not enough to win an election if it were held today.

4A Karori man was stabbed in the face by a patient who escaped while being transported by mental health workers today.

5A Levin pensioner staging a one-man rent revolt has been evicted from his flat by Police.

6Two storm-wrecked albatrosses who needed specialist veterinary care following last week's violent Wellington storm have been released back into the wild today.

7A search and rescue team has failed to find any sign of the missing American schooner Nina or its seven crew members.

8Otago University Researchers hope a genetic test could soon be developed to determine which children with asthma will eventually grow out of it and who will have the condition for their entire lives.

9British man Christian Landmark, who defaced Jewish gravestones with swastikas in an Auckland cemetery last October has escaped prison but has been told he has one month to leave New Zealand.

10The Territorial soldiers who were deployed to Christchurch's central city red zone after the February 2011 earthquake have clocked off for the last time today.

11Former South African President Nelson Mandela remains in a critical condition but overnight came news that he has improved slightly. United States President Barack Obama is due to arrive in South Africa this week.

12A Chinese power company has been granted permission to build a $300 million power plant near Taupo.

13More than one million pounds is being spent doing up the apartment in Kensington Palace where Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge will live with their new baby. Plus, for the second year in a row, Queen Elizabeth II is to receive a pay-rise.