Good morning here’s your headlines from around regional Australia and beyond. Scroll down and refresh for weather, road reports and more.
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YASS: Police are seeking public assistance as they investigate fires in the Yass area, which are all believed to be suspicious and linked.
Strike Force Scatter was established in February 2016 by detectives attached to the Hume Local Area Command to investigate a number of rural fires in the Yass Valley. Read more.
GOULBURN: Heroes and villains from every universe and comic came to life for the Goulburn Comic Con on Saturday.
Hundreds filled Veolia Arena for a day of interactive and entertaining activities, with costume competitions, wrestling, debates and diverse stalls in an event enjoyed by all. Read more.
QUEANBEYAN: They're both childhood friends, have travelled the world pursuing their chosen craft and are proudly Queanbeyan born and bred.
A portrait of retired Formula One driver Mark Webber by photographer Gino Zardo has been selected as one of 49 finalists for the National Photographic Portrait Prize. Read more.
CROOKWELL: A gas fired power project at Dalton has jumped back on the agenda five years after a company suspended the plan.
AGL won Planning and Assessment Commission approval for its $1.5 billion plant, churning out up to 1000 megawatts of electricity, in July, 2012. Read more.
Roads and rail: The Southern Highlands rail line is running on time this morning and there are no delays on the roads.
Southern Inland NSW weather
Need a national news snapshot first thing - well, we have you covered.
►ILLAWARRA: A Spanish tourist has had a lucky escape after he was bitten on the bottom by a shark while boogie-boarding at The Farm on Sunday evening. Read more
► MANDURAH: Australia’s much-loved pop rock band Thirsty Merc took over Crab Fest’s music stage on Sunday afternoon bringing their much-loved, summery tunes to Mandurah. Read more
► UNANDERRA: “When I saw the drain … I was searching and I saw it and I knew then," she said.
Thursday night at the Teasdale family home in Unanderra was long and excruciating.
Outside, the gutters babbled with racing stormwater. A relentless sheet of rain pelted the plastic coats of the grave-faced police and SES volunteers gathered two streets away, at the opening to a stormwater drain. Read more
► BENDIGO: It was a simple stroll around Rosalind Park, but for hundreds of people at the Suicide Prevention Awareness Network walk on Sunday it was an emotional roller coaster. Read more
► NORTH EAST: A Chiltern man is facing up to 10 years in jail for allegedly importing a child sex doll from China. Read more
► LAUNCESTON: A Launceston father and son have had health struggles and felt forgotten while waiting for medical action. Stuart Lade was brutally assaulted in late 2013, deforming his nasal passage. Stuart’s father, John Lade, visited the same doctor three weeks later because of infected sinuses. The GP recommended the RHH to have his sinuses drained and he was also referred to the RHH. But progress stalled and both men are yet to undergo their surgeries. Read more
► NORTHERN TERRITORY: Some are calling it the Battle for Beetaloo. Beetaloo is an energy-rich El Dorado, a little known region in the remote Australian outback which, according to miners, can solve Australia’s natural gas problems for the next 30 years if not longer. Read more
► INVERELL: Nationals senator John "Wacka" Williams has revealed he has Parkinson's disease, a degenerative condition that has begun to affect his mobility. Read more
National news
►Migrants are being warned that "practices and behaviours that undermine" Australian values and sense of "fair go" have no place in Australia, in a new government multicultural statement to be released today. Read more
► Sensitive employment data on another 53,000 federal public servants may have been supplied to a private firm conducting workplace ballots without the knowledge or consent of the workers. Read more
►Scott Morrison is planning to push the so-called "Google Tax" through Parliament. Read more
►Voters in some of the most conservative seats in Australia overwhelmingly support legalising same-sex marriage in 2017, according to a decisive new poll of a dozen Coalition seats. Read more
National weather radar
What’s coming your way ...
International news
►DELHI: Going on stage at school and acting out scenes from your home life can uncover hidden truths. The stage at Prerna School for Girls in Lucknow is the place where the performers - girls from poor families in the surrounding slums - suddenly realise they are unequal. Read more
►DILI: The front-runner to be elected East Timor's president at elections on Monday has offered new hope for a breakthrough with Australia in a bitter stand-off over $40 billion in oil and gas fields. Read more
►BEIJING: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has appeared with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to say the two countries share the view that tensions on the Korean Peninsula have reached "a rather dangerous level". Read more
On this day
1602: The Dutch East India company, which was indirectly responsible for many discoveries in the Pacific, is formed.
1802: English explorer Matthew Flinders names Spencer Gulf in South Australia.
1974: An attempt is made to kidnap Princess Anne, only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II.
1991: Singer Eric Clapton's four-year-old son falls to his death from an open apartment window, 53 storeys up.
1995: A Tokyo subway is attacked with Sarin gas.
The faces of Australia: Alan Pham
Alan Pham couldn’t have known that disassembling a timepiece at a young age were the first footsteps on a path that led him to a life in Leeton.
Mr. Pham’s first taste of Australia came when his family moved to Sydney from Vietnam when he was four.
One of three children, he remembered having a fascination with technology and machines starting at a very early age, but his curiosity came at a price.
“I would take a watch and take it apart,” he said.
“But I couldn’t get it back together.”