1Regular updates on the health of former Prime Minister Sir Robert Muldoon - currently in Greenlane Hospital - came to an abrupt halt yesterday.

2A male backpacker, believed to be from New Zealand, was rushed to a Sydney hospital last night following a fire at a private hotel.

3The East German Communist Party Central Committee and ruling Polit Bureau have bowed to public pressure and resigned. Former leader Erich Honecker and several members of the old guard have been expelled from the Party because of years of mis-rule.

4For the first time since the Warsaw Pact invasion of 1968, the new Czechoslovakian Government contains non-Communists.

5Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and United States President George Bush have hailed the Saltwater Summit the start of a new era in Soviet - US relations.

6Although the Cold War is all but over, American intelligence officials believe the number of Soviet spies has actually risen sharply.

7The three-day coup attempt in the Philippines appears to be over.

8An explosion in the cellar of a Brussels gun club killed 12 people and seriously injured three more.

9About 300 survivors of the Bhopal chemical disaster in India were arrested when they marched on the closed Union Carbide factory to mark the fifth anniversary of the tragedy.

10School fees are set to rise dramatically next year as schools try to make up the shortfall in Government funding.

11A new food formula may give New Zealand's endangered birds being reared in captivity a better chance of survival.

12Green Stress Syndrome is a new illness affecting environmentalists and others who are so worried about the world they are making themselves sick.

13Twenty dancers at the Royal Ballet in London have taken strike action over claims for a 15% pay rise.

14In the United States, pets are being used to help patients in comas after suffering serious head injuries.