1The Labour Department's briefing to the incoming Government was released today, and it is predicting a large increase in unemployment. Cabinet is considering conducting a household survey as a more accurate means of measuring the number of people out of work.

2Wage bargaining could begin almost immediately if unions and employers accept a Government proposal for ending the wage freeze, the details of which are being kept confidential until next week.

3New Zealand mountaineer Peter Hillary was so shaken by this week's double fatality on Mount Everest that he says he considered giving up mountaineering altogether.

4Britain is urging New Zealand, Australia and other South Pacific nations to form a regional security pact to defend themselves against potential external aggression.

5Auckland Police dog Sarge was stabbed to death today in a violent struggle with a man armed with a knife.

6Another man has been charged with aggravated robbery in connection with the Mangere Bridge Post Office hold-up last week.

7Mark Stephens was sentenced to five years imprisonment today following his conviction for the brutal bashing of television producer Robyn Scholes.

8Unions representing freight industry workers are calling for the Government to tighten controls on the shipment of dangerous goods following the hospitalisation of fourteen employees this year.

9The three-man Commission of Inquiry into industrial troubles at Marsden Point met in Wellington for the first time today, in order to establish procedures and a venue for the hearing, which will begin at the end of October.

10Unions representing freight industry workers are calling for the Government to tighten controls on the shipment of dangerous goods following the hospitalisation of fourteen employees this year.

11Air New Zealand has announced plans to offer the aviation world its experience in overhauling Fokker Friendship aircraft.

12Chief Ombudsman Sir George Laking is to be replaced by Lester Castle from Monday when Laking retires.

13A former Australian Air Force technician has revealed to a Royal Commission that under orders he buried two unwanted atomic bombs in the Southern Desert thirty years ago.

14A Television New Zealand (TVNZ) news crew in Tahiti has had its camera equipment impounded by the French authorities while following up reports that the French intended extending their nuclear testing programme at Mururoa Atoll until the end of the century.

15A United States judge has rejected a Government motion to dismiss a lawsuit for $450 million brought by the people of Bikini Atoll as compensation for the destruction of their Paciifc homeland by 23 hydrogen bomb tests in the 1940s and 1950s.

16The Agrava Commission, a Government Commission investigating the murder of Filipino Opposition Leader Benigno Aquino says he was killed by a soldier last August, not a communist assassin as the military claimed, The Commission believes he was the victim of a conspiracy within the military which involved high-ranking officers.

17An Australian shearing contractor fears that someone could be killed in the row over shearing comb sizes and award conditions in the Australian back-country, and he says the New Zealand shearers are not entirely to blame for the tension.

18An Auckland funeral director is promoting "pay now, die later" funerals in an attempt to try to ease the burden of funeral expenses on grieving relatives.

19New Zealanders contributed more than $1.1 million to Africa's starving people in last month's World Vision phone-in television special.

20Pupils at Auckland's Rangitoto College had a rare opportunity to meet a folk ensemble from Uzbekistan today.