1Relief workers have today estimated the number of people starving in Ethiopia at seven million. Many are abandoning their homes and heading north to Korem in an effort to obtain food and medical treatment from relief agencies. Meanwhile, a famine camp at Lalibela has been overrun by Liberation Fighters where it is reported that ten members of a German medical team are being held hostage.

2A huge military crackdown on Black townships near Johannesburg has been condemned by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). All but one of the Council's fifteen members have demanded an immediate end to apartheid and censured the "continuing massacres, arbitrary arrests and detention of oppressed people in South Africa". The United States abstained from the vote.

3Police have recovered the bodies of three people who were killed when their light aircraft crashed near Turangi a week ago.

4The Government released its bi-annual balance sheet today, and it reflects an economy on the upswing. How will this affect next month's Budget?

5Opposition leader Sir Robert Muldoon says the Government has very little room to move if it wants to give tax relief in next month's Budget.

6There has been little progress at a special General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) committee meeting in Geneva to discuss the European Community's EEC's plan to dump cheap butter on the common market.

7Former Transport Minister George Gair has confirmed that he will seek the leadership of the National Party.

8There was chaos in a South Auckland courtroom today when five men appeared on charges of robbing the Mangere Bridge Post Office.

9The Local Bodies Officers' Union in Canterbury is withdrawing from the Federation of Labour (FOL).

10The Philippines' top military chief General Fabian Ver is among twenty-six people implicated in the murder of Opposition leader Benigno Aquino.

11Four people were killed today when fire destroyed one of The Philippines' best known hotels, Pines.

12Today marks one year since 200 American marines were killed in a bomb attack in Beirut. Since then, many more people have died in terrorist attacks on American buildings abroad, but questions about security remain.

13French President Francois Mitterrand has arrived in Britain for a four-day State visit.

14A recent overseas trip by Queen Elizabeth II has ended in embarrassment for the Premier of the Canadian province of New Brunswick after a routine security check revealed Premier Richard Hatfield's luggage contained a bag of marihuana.