Police have charged a 25-year-old Beaufort man over a fatal car crash last year in which a four-year-old girl died. Read more.

The 23-year-old woman who allegedly hit cyclist Christian Ashby and left him fighting for his life in the middle of the street has pleaded guilty.  Read more.

The 23-year-old woman who allegedly hit cyclist Christian Ashby and left him fighting for his life in the middle of the street has pleaded guilty. Read more.

Dawn Harrison feared the worst when she saw grass on the side of the road at Dyson Drive engulfed by a sea of flames. Read more.

This morning's rain will clear before a pleasant top of 20 degrees. We had 20mm of rain overnight up to 7am today.

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

►MANDURAH, WA: Tim Mills works as a firefighter at the station in Success, but on Thursday morning he had to put his skills to use off-duty.  A woman arrived at his front door to tell him a car had crashed into a power pole out the front of his bush block, with both the car and the pole alight.

►BEGA, NSW: Bega Cheese Limited has become the new owner of the iconic Australian food spread Vegemite.  The sale includes brands such as Vegemite, ZoOsh and Bonox...read the full story.

►BALLARAT, VIC: The 23-year-old woman who allegedly hit cyclist Christian Ashby and left him fighting for his life in the middle of the street has pleaded guilty...read more. 

►KURRI KURRI, NSW: The arson squad is involved in the hunt for the firebugs responsible for a massive blaze.  An arsonist is believed to have sparked two blazes which quickly raged out of control as it damaged property, prompted frightened residents to take shelter and shut the Hunter Expressway for hours.

►The things you didn't know about Gladys Berejiklian – friends describe her as an intensely private woman who is perhaps even closer to her family than Mike Baird is to his.  Ms Berejiklian has declared herself a candidate for the Liberal leadership after Mike Baird stepped aside...full story here.

►The multibillion-dollar Melbourne Metro rail project will boost the Australian economy, the nation's top infrastructure advisers have declared, placing pressure on the Turnbull government to increase funding to Victorian major projects.

►A vice-president of the NSW RSL has become the first member of the scandal-plagued institution to bow to pressure and stand aside.  Peter Stephenson, a Vietnam veteran, called on the rest of the 11-member state council to also step down and make way for a caretaker amid an expense rorts affair that has plunged the RSL into crisis.

► ITALY: Rescue officials say "many" people have died after an avalanche hit a hotel in central Italy, all but burying the three-storey building in snow.  The Rigopiano hotel, in a mountainous area of the Abruzzo region north-east of Rome, was rocked by a series of strong earthquakes...full story here.

►INDONESIA: An Australian man and a British former war correspondent arrested for possessing hashish in Bali last October are drug abusers who should be treated at a narcotics prison, the Denpasar District Court has been told.

It took decades for Don Tweedie to share the horror of what he had endured as a prisoner of war in World War II. 

Now his son has published a book that shares Don’s memories of those atrocities, his life before and after the war.

“Don Tweedie Fighting Bandsman’s Last Stand” is Terry Tweedie’s tribute to his dad and other POWS along with the families, friends, mothers, wives and girlfriends who suffered with them.

Read the full story here.