Need a national news snapshot first thing - well, we have you covered.
► WOLLONGONG: The family of Cheryl Grimmer sat in quiet anticipation in the public gallery of Wollongong Local Court on Friday morning, waiting to catch their first glimpse of the man who police claim killed their beloved sister and would-be-aunt on a hot January day in 1970. Read more
► ALBURY: An Albury day care owner who amassed a multi-million-dollar fortune through bogus government benefit claims has maintained her innocence, telling a psychologist she has no idea how or why she was found guilty. Read more
► NEWCASTLE: A probationary Rural Fire Service member who deliberately lit fires at Lochinvar, Keinbah, Bishops Bridge and Sawyers Gully and made numerous hoax calls to emergency services because he was bored and wanted to be called out to battle the blazes has been jailed for two years. Read more
► WARRNAMBOOL: Ash Brophy, aka the Crazy Cossack, is on cloud nine after making his debut with Hudsons Circus in Warrnambool. Read more
► BENDIGO: A Bendigo Health nurse sacked for tagging colleagues in a “sexually explicit” social media video has been awarded more than $2000 in compensation after an unfair dismissal case. Read more
► GEORGE TOWN, TASMANIA: A couple of weeks ago, Trinady Bailey woke to find her car up in flames on her front lawn.Someone had burnt it out while it was parked in the family’s front yard. Read more
â–ş BACCHUS MARSH: One man is dead another in serious condition in hospital after a car hit a tree in Bacchus Marsh this morning. Read more
National news
► The Turnbull government has hand-balled responsibility for protecting people facing big pay cuts on Sundays and public holidays to the Fair Work Commission, effectively guaranteeing Labor and the union movement will mount a ferocious industrial relations campaign all the way until the next election. Read more
► It's now the home of a McDonald's, Hungry Jack's and other fast food outlets but archeologists are licking their lips at the prospect of what lies beneath. Read more
► Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne has cited the uncertainty about Donald Trump's foreign policy as one reason Australia needs to bolster its home-grown defence industry. Read more
National weather radar
What’s coming your way ...
â–şLONDON:Â The Westminster attacker Khalid Masood was born Adrian Russell Ajao and was from Dartford in Kent but took on a number of aliases before his murderous rampage targeting Britain's parliament this week.Read more.
â–şWASHINGTON:Â A moment of high drama has gripped the Trump presidency. For eight years, Republicans voted again and again to repeal Obamacare, but without ever drafting a replacement. And now that they control the White House and both chambers of Congress, they seemingly still can't agree on the terms of a bill. Read more
On this day
1609 – Henry Hudson embarks on an exploration for Dutch East India Co
1807 – British Parliament abolishes slave trade throughout the British Empire; penalty of £120 per slave introduced for ship captains
1895 – Italian troops invade Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
1960 – 1st guided missile launched from nuclear powered sub (Halibut)
The faces of Australia: Ray I'u
United by a tight bond, barbers stick together through thick and thin.
That mentality was never more evident than when Ray I’u and his team at Ross C’s barber shop threw their support behind a fellow barber they’d never met, Junee’s Sebastian McInerney, who began his fight against Meningococcal septicaemia earlier this year.
Mr I’u and a handful of his colleagues will be on hand at Mr McInerney’s fundraiser early next month, offering haircuts to raise funds for the Junee youngster’s cause.
