6.30 NEWS. SATURDAY 20/07/1985

News, sport and weather.
Main stories
Mud slide covers village in Northern Italy : 260 people feared dead after a dam bursts. Six people have been found alive in the mud.
Sharp earthquake rocks many parts of the North Island. Felt very strongly in Gisborne and also in the Bay of Plenty and Hawke’s Bay.
Auckland businessman and his family robbed at gun point in their suburban home. The police say three or four men forced they way in , made the businessman open his safe and tied up the family. They got away with $40,000.
A 16 year old youth is missing believed drowned after a canoeing accident on Lake Karapiro.
Auckland Central MP has been handed a 2,000 signature petition in his electorate supporting homosexual law reform. The petition was unusual in that the organisers had included the electoral role number of each signatory. Auckland Central is said to have the largest homosexual population of any electorate.
Team of NZ mountaineers leaving for Mt Everest. They intend climbing the mountain from the treacherous northern side in Tibet.
A NZer has been elected Chairman of the International Whaling Commission. Mr. Ian Stewart is the first person from this country to hold the post. Mr. Stewart said his election will put NZ into a strong position in the Worldwide drive to save the whales.
President Reagan will leave hospital today, seven days after his operation for colon cancer.
Japanese PM has been told in Brussels that European countries want more access to the Japanese market. The EEC’s trade deficit with Japan amounts to $15b.
Summit conference of the OAU opens today in Ethiopian capital Addis Abba.
Large Soviet e naval exercise in North Atlantic.