A quick hit of the biggest international stories that you mught have missed today.

The Ellerslie Flower Show is returning to Christchurch, despite the February 22 quake.

A spike in pokie machine spending has raised fears quake-hit residents are becoming addicted to...

School principals say the number of pupils turning up for breakfast is increasing daily, despite the collapse of one of the two main breakfast programmes...

The high profile coverage of Countdown's withdrawal from the Red Cross breakfast programme is a public relations nightmare.

Three months after the February quake, nothing much has changed for some residents in eastern Christchurch.

Countdown has stopped funding breakfasts for children at 61 low-income schools.

Stressed-out Cantabrians have been squandering Red Cross cash handouts on poker machines.

Cabinet agreed today to give $1m to support the Red Cross effort in Japan, Prime Minister John Key announced this afternoon, and also confirmed four NZers were still in Libya.

An 80-year-old woman and a 16-year-old boy have been rescued from a badly damaged house in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, nine days after the magnitude 9 earthquake and subsequent tsunami ravaged the area, the Japan Times reports.

The Crusaders have confirmed they will play the Sharks at Twickenham and the Bulls in Timaru in their next two home games.

The Chinese Embassy has asked the Government to give special compensation to Chinese families who lost children in last month's Christchurch earthquake.