FOUR people have been taken to the Ballarat Base Hospital from the Rainbow Serpent music festival in Lexton, with one day still remaining. Read more.

SEVENTEEN bands provided the entertainment for the hundreds of punters at the music festival on Saturday, raising much needed funds livestock and property affected by the fire. Read more.

CITY leaders are pushing for councillors to be employed full time and paid higher salaries as part of a review of the “outdated” council model.  Read more.

THE Arch of Victory/Avenue of Honour ( AoV/AoH) Committee are asking members of the Ballarat community to chip in $150,000 for a new war memorial to be built near the Arch of Victory. Read more.

BALLARAT-REDAN’S Jayden Hayes is gearing up for his place in the Victoria Country side that will take on its metropolitan counterparts in an annual under-21 clash next month. Read more.

It's going to be a relatively cold week this week.

And finally, here is our picture of the day from Instagram. Simply upload your photo each day with the hashtag #ballarat to be in the running for your photo to appear.

Need a national news snapshot first thing - well, we have you covered. 

► WOLLONGONG: Wollongong resident Melissa Abu-Gazaleh finds out on Monday night if she is the 2016 Young Australian of the Year. Read all about it.

► BENDIGO:  Police have confirmed they are investigating a suspected arson attack at Golden Square’s Cooinda Park playground overnight. Full story.

► BOWRAL:  THE state's best buskers are all set to battle it out in the Moss Vale Buskers Battle on March 6. Read on.

► BALLARAT: FOUR people have been taken to the Ballarat Base Hospital from the Rainbow Serpent music festival in Lexton, with one day still remaining. Full story.

► ALBURY-WODONGA: THE Andrews government has been accused of having an agenda to slowly wipe out duck hunting in Victoria. Full story.

► DUBBO: MEMBERS of the community have been asked to be on the lookout for two inmates who escaped from a correctional centre in the state's west. Full story.

► JIMBOOMBA: RETIRING Logan mayor Pam Parker doubts preferences will play a role in the looming local government poll. Full story.

► LAUNCESTON: DESPITE a break from extreme fire weather on Friday, dangerous conditions are expected to flare again and the state has declared a total fire ban for the next four days. Full story.

► NEWCASTLE: A venom milking program set up to help save hundreds of lives each year has seen its largest participant arrive.

► COOMA: Bugs force shutdown of hospital operating theater in Cooma. Full story.

►Even a few years ago, it would have been inconceivable that the head of the Australian army, traditionally one of the most male-dominated institutions in the country, would have emerged as a leading voice in the battle for women's equality and staunch campaigner against domestic violence. Full story.

► For many Australians, January 26 will be marked by beers, barbecues and Australian flag bikinis.

For Indigenous Australians it will be a day of mourning. It marks the start of British invasion on Aboriginal lands and is an annual reminder of the many ways Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians are still being left behind. Full story.

►Feelgood stories can run out of steam, and just as the Australian Open had looked on course to have its dream Australia Day script the Daria Gavrilova bubble burst spectacularly on Sunday night.

►Joe Hockey has had a very chilly reception in Washington DC as he starts his new job as Australia's Ambassador to the United States. Full story.

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► LONDON: Politicians need to spend less time looking at polls and more time talking to voters, says veteran Australian political strategist Lynton Crosby. Full story.

► BRITAIN: It could either be the most expensive wash in history – or the best ever 'the dog ate my homework' excuse. Full story.

► HONG KONG: As far as dramatic plot turns come, it would not have been out of place in one of the salacious political volumes he published.

Gui Minhai, a successful Hong Kong publisher specialising in sordid tales of Communist Party political intrigue, vanished without warning from his 17th-storey apartment in the Thai beach town of Pattaya in October. Full story.

► JAKARTA: Activists are suing the Indonesian government in a bid to stop development they say will devastate the last remaining area on earth where Sumatran tigers, rhinoceroses, orangutans and elephants live together in the wild. Full story.

One for the sci fi fans. NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission began in 2003. The mission involves two automated rovers, or robotic exploration vehicles, the 'Spirit' and the 'Opportunity', which have explored the surface and geology of Mars, and sent data back to Earth. 'Opportunity' was launched on 7 July 2003 and landed on Mars on 25 January 2004. It had driven more than 34 kilometres during its mission.

THE earliest memory 99-year-old Valerie Hough has is of when she was between four and fourteen, watching a lamplighter igniting the lanterns of gas street lights in Sydney. 

While the near-centenarian, who now lives in Bega, can remember stories in crystal-clear detail, how long ago things happened are of little importance to her these days. 

“I don’t keep time,” she said.

“I can’t be bothered; as you get older it’s not important.

“Family is really the only thing that is important now.” 

On Saturday, January 23, Ms Hough was sitting in her room at Casuarina Nursing Home waiting for relatives to arrive and take her to Wollongong, where she thought they would put on a party for her. 

This is because she will turn 100 on Australia Day, January 26.