1The Federation of Labour (FOL) is refusing to back down on demands for a $15 a week general wage order, despite Prime Minister David Lange's emphatic rejection of such an order. Meanwhile the Engineers' Union has warned that unless the Government acts immediately to increase wages and control prices it will be forced to take industrial action. The Government is introducing regulations which extend the current wage and price freeze until the Budget is read on November 8th.

2Prime Minister David Lange has changed his stance on nuclear-powered warships, saying he would consider allowing them to visit New Zealand if it could be proved that they posed no danger and carried no nuclear weapons.

3Auckland Police say they are following a definite line of inquiry in their hunt for the men who fired shots during the armed robbery of the Mangere Bridge Post Office last week.

4The battle for the National Party leadership begins in earnest tonight at a divisional meeting of the party in Christchurch. It is understood that Jim Bolger will formally announce his intention to stand for the leadership when Caucus votes on the matter next February.

5United States President Ronald Reagan and his Democratic Party challenger Walter Mondale face each other in the first of two televised election debates.

6In the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Government has received a heavy-handed and untimely blow from the Anglican Church on the eve of the Conservative Party's annual conference. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie has severely criticised the Government for its handling of the seven-month long miners' strike and record unemployment, accusing it of dividing the nation. However, a Sunday Times political poll shows the Conservatives remain more popular than the opposition Labour Party.

7West Germany has closed its embassy in Czechoslovakia indefinitely because of its occupation by 140 East Germans seeking political asylum.

8East Germany's 25th anniversary has been marked by a military parade through the streets of East Berlin.

9Police have confirmed that former MP John Kirk was given special Police protection earlier this year after he received a threatening letter.

10The Automobile Association (AA) magazine Motor World, says devaluation means motorists are having to pay more to run their vehicles.

11New Zealand hotels have reacted sharply to criticism of their accommodation standards made by American travel company Travel Programmers International.

12New Zealand's third largest company, Brierley Investments, has almost doubled its profit in the past year.

13Samoan members of the New Zealand Police are being taught their own language and culture this week at a special course in Wellington aimed at improving communication between Police and New Zealand's growing Samoan community.

14Two New Zealand shearers have been hospitalised following a gun battle in Coleraine, Victoria between New Zealand and Australian shearers. The incident is part of a continuing dispute over the use of wide shearing combs by New Zealand shearers.

15Melbourne mafia mobster Gianfranco Tizzon has been jailed for eight years for conspiring to murder Liberal Party candidate and Griffith anti-drug crusader Donald McKay and New Zealand-born drug couriers for the Mr Asia syndicate, Douglas and Isabel Wilson.

16A fifteen year old boy has entered no plea to a charge of keeping lookout while other gang members raped a nine year old New Zealand girl, her mother and a friend in Port Moresby.

17Queen Elizabeth II has arrived in the United States for a private week-long holiday following her busy tour of Canada.