1A gunman has shot fourteen people dead and wounded sixteen others in the quiet English town of Hungerford.

2Wellington Central MP Fran Wilde, who missed out on a Cabinet post, was today appointed Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs, Housing and Conservation. Prime Minister David Lange also appointed two other Associate Ministers and four Undersecretaries. Wanganui MP Russell Marshall has lost his Education portfolio to Prime Minister David Lange, a move that he says took him by surprise, especially as he cancelled retirement plans in order to continue the job he had begun in education.

3An American journalist, freed after 62 days as a hostage in Beirut, has reunited with his family in London. He has admitted that his escape may have been contrived by his kidnappers.

4Another United States convoy has begun sailing through the Persian Gulf.

5Westpac has announced significant cuts in interest rates, including home mortgages and overdrafts.

6The toll of lifetime drug taking was illustrated during the trial of Lorraine and Aaron Cohen in the Penang High Court today.

7The New Zealand family, kidnapped by rebels in Mozambique more than three months ago, has been released.

8A post-mortem examination has confirmed that 93 year old former Nazi leader Rudolf Hess died of asphyxiation.

9Five of the septuplets born in Liverpool on the weekend have now died.

10Anti racism group Halt All Racist Tours (HART) is still waiting to hear back from Customs about its complaint over the importation of a South African race horse.

11Internationally acclaimed opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is back in New Zealand for the first time in nearly two years to judge the Mobil Song Quest and to make a documentary about her early life.