1The two biggest food producers in Australasia, New Zealand's Watties Industries and Australia's Goodman Fielder, have announced a $3.4 billion merger.

2United States President Ronald Reagan's efforts to minimise the political damage done by his arms deal with Iran are failing to work. A group of his long-term political advisors are allegedly trying to persuade him to replace Secretary of State George Shultz and Chief of Staff Donald Regan. Meanwhile, there are new revelations that the arms deal may not have amounted to the President's claimed $12 million, but rather $100 million.

3Philippines President Corazon Aquino is setting up a new Cabinet tonight, following the discovery of a plot to overthrow her.

4The British Government is coming under pressure to hold an urgent inquiry into the sinking of the 90,000 tonne bulk carrier MV Kowloon Bridge off the southern coast of Ireland. Twenty-eight men had to be rescued by Royal Air Force (RAF) helicopters in rough weather conditions.

5A previously unknown group calling itself The Greek Bulgarian Armenian Front has claimed responsibility for yesterday's car bombing of the Turkish Consulate in Melbourne, which killed one person, and has threatened more attacks. Police now believe the man who died at the scene was the person who planted the explosive.

6Pope John Paul II is currently in Canberra, where he is celebrating Mass. His whirlwind New Zealand visit ended with an open air Mass at Lancaster Park in Christchurch.

7The Government is about to reap a $7 billion windfall, As State departments are being turned into Corporations, they are being made to buy their assets from the Government. However, the payments will not necessarily be used to pay the country's deficit.

8Doctors fear that a new type of health clinic being set up in South Auckland by the Hotel and Hospital Workers' Union, will lead New Zealand into a two-tier health system.

9The trial of the secretary of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society continued in the High Court in Auckland today. Leo Stack has denied either counselling or inciting a woman to commit suicide.

10A new Forest Service building was officially opened in Thames today, just days after it was announced that the Forestry Office in Thames is to close in six weeks. The staff affected boycotted the opening.

11Twenty year old Mike Tyson took the Heavyweight Boxing title today, the youngest ever to do so.

12High flying New Zealand stockbrokers are conquering Australia's sharemarket in the wake of Finance Minister Roger Douglas' deregulation of the economy. Report from a Sydney seminar called 'The Kiwi Conquest'.

13The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have uncovered a massive scam that implicates some of Wall Street's top professional money dealers. At the same time, New York has also seen one of the biggest Mafia trials in history. Who exactly is running the Big Apple?

14What appeared to be a minor chemical fire last month in Switzerland has turned into one of Europe's biggest ecological disasters. Chemicals have poisoned the Rhine River and threatened one of Europe's most important industrial regions.

15Some of the long traditions of wine making are fast disappearing under a flood of high-tech production methods. But, in the French province of Burgundy, some die-hard winemakers remain who believe that a full-bodied wine needs spirit.

16Erno Rubik, the inventor of the Rubik's Cube, has a new product on the market called Rubik's Magic.

17The children of America's young, upwardly mobile populations (YUPPIES) are learning the finer points of etiquette.