1A union picket has been thrown around the troubled Clyde Dam site in central Otago by private contractors employed by the Zublin-Williamson consortium. Negotioations are continuing tonight between the consortium and the Combined State Unions (CSU) to try to end the strike.

2A three-man Commission of Inquiry was named today to investigate ways of improving industrial relations on the Marsden Point oil Refinery expansion site.

3Race Relations Conciliator Hiwi Tauroa believes less attention should be paid to brawls between street gangs in Auckland, saying much of the trouble stems from gangs trying to live up to an image, and increased attention only feeds into this. However, Police Minister Ann Hercus has supported the Police action in making over forty arrests over the weekend, saying their is no easy solution to the problem of gang tensions.

4Police Minister Ann Hercus expressed her opinion on the decision to release convicted rapist Henare Dewes from Paremoremo Prison despite Police concerns that he remains a danger to the public. Dewes is in the final stages of cancer and is not expected to live for more than a few weeks.

5The Canterbury Education Board took the extraordinary step of closing Redcliffs School today to protect children from a large Great Dane dog that was on the premises.

6A group of business leaders have launched a new scheme aimed at eradicating the dole. The Business Alliance hopes to find jobs and training for the unemployed. This was an initiative that arose from the recent Economic Summit Conference and it has the support of the Government.

7United States President Ronald Reagan has called for frank and open discussions with the Soviet Union in an effort to reduce each county's stockpile of nuclear weapons following an informal meeting with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko.

8The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has bowed to demands from the Third World for a special meeting on the problems of countries that are heavily in debt.

9Police in Seboking have arrested five hundred Black South Africans at the funeral of a Black youth who died during recent protests over living standards.

10Intensive Police inquiries are underway into a bomb attack on a Sydney delicatessen.

11New Zealand's timber firms have been told they should co-operate in the export field, even though they compete in the home market.

12Feltex has withdrawn from a multi-million plan to log part of the giant Waitutu State Forest in Fiordland.

13Tickets will go on sale on Monday for a special Melbourne Cup sweepstake with a first prize of $750,000.

14Coca Cola has been told to stop selling its new Diet Coke drink, because it does not comply with Health Department food regulations.

15Diplomatic immunity is the only thing saving an Iranian diplomat in London from prosecution over the ritual slaughter of a sheep in a suburban street.

16One thousand Dutch children have laid flowers on the graves of Allied soldiers who died during the Battle of Arnhem in World War Two.