1Labour Party leader David Lange launched his party's campaign at the Christchurch Town Hall tonight, calling for unity and a desire to reunite a divided country in a speech that was big on themes, but short on specific detail.

2The Labour Party released its key economic policy today and deliberately avoided making specific promises to voters, with leader David Lange saying it would be irresponsible to make any commitments until they have seen the books. Prime Minister Sir Robert Muldoon has reacted to Labour's policy by calling it 'eleven pages of platitudes'. Social Credit leader Bruce Beetham has called it 'a bland document that fails totally' and says it highlights deep divisions within the Labour Party when it comes to economic theories.

3Prime Minister Sir Robert Muldoon has announced new measures to assist primary producers by dropping the present Supplementary Prices System and replaced with lump sum Government grants.

4New Zealand Party leader Bob Jones is at a meeting in Ohariu tonight where he plans to outline his party's plans to restructure the education system.

5The lucrative Trans-Tasman horticultural markets will be difficult for New Zealand exporters to penetrate, according to Australian produce importers.

6Rainfall is well below average for Hawkes Bay this year, with farmers fearing another drought is likely.

7Unions at Marsden Point are considering legal action on behalf of workers who were refused re-employment at the refinery expansion site.

8New Zealand's first heart transplant patient is reportedly doing well at a London Hospital.

9Nearly five years after the DC-10 crash on Mount Erebus, sixteen New Zealand families have won the first round of a multi-million dollar case against the United States Government. A federal judge has rejected a Government motion to reject the lawsuit, which claims that American air traffic controllers at McMurdo Base were negligent in not warning Flight 901 that it was on a collision course with Mount Erebus.

10European Economic Community (EEC) leaders have begun a new summit meeting in France aimed at sorting out the wrangle over Britain's contribution to the community's budget.

11Unites States Secretary of Defence Caspar Weinberger says Iran may soon begin its long-awaited offensive against Iraq and has predicted it may turn into the one of the most terrible infantry battles since World War One. veteran Democrat Senator Alan Cranston says both sides in the Gulf War are planning to make nuclear weapons to use against each other or Israel.

12Environment Ministers and top officials from thirty-one countries have gathered in West Germany to try to find a common strategy to deal with air pollution.

13The Sanyo International Rally has been won by Swedish driver Stig Blomqvist. The first New Zealander home was Aucklander Reg Cook.

14Campaign Report In a snap election, the time available to woo the voters is short. It is the candidates' jib to take the party's message to the electorate and responsibility for making sure that message has impact lies with the party leader. But behind the cameras, the meetings and the shopping mall walkabouts there is a machine making it all happen. The person mainly charged with running that machine is the Party President whose job it is to get the party to the polls in the best possible shape. A look behind the scenes to see the campaign machinery in action.