The woman who hit Ballarat cyclist Christian Ashby and left him lying bloody in the middle of the road was on her way to get money for drugs, a court has heard. Read more.

A terrifying attack by a baseball bat-wielding woman on another woman outside the Ballarat Specialist School on Wednesday has led police to arrest a 24-year-old woman for allegedly ramming a police car in Gordon weeks ago. Read more.

It was always going to be a shaky start, but the students at Ballarat’s new Berry Street School have come along in “significant leaps and bounds” since the campus opened in February. Read more.

A love affair that crosses the decades from World War Two to the turn of this century will bring one of Australia’s best-loved actors to the stage in Ballarat. Read more.

Theatres have been the foremost examples of engineering and cultural expression since ancient times. Read more.

Suddenly you get the feeling winter isn't all that far away.

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

►LAUNCESTON: If you’re looking to expand your family, a happy cow might be just what you were looking for. 

A curious ad appeared on the online buy-and-sell site Gumtree on Tuesday evening advertising an Ashgrove Farm ‘happy cow’ was going free to a good home. Read more.

►BALLARAT: The thunder of hooves and the crash of timber on armour will fill the grounds of Kryal Castle this weekend as our Australian jousters take on their New Zealand counterparts in the Tasman Shield International Jousting Tournament.

Ballarat veteran Phillip Leitch is joining compatriots Cliff Marisma and Andrew McKinnon to combat the NZ team of Jezz Smith, Vikki Subritzy and Simon Neilsen. Read more.

►MANDURAH: In the wake of recent statistics showing a significant increase in the number of people taking methamphetamines and seeking help for drug addiction, the Palmerston Association is set to roll out a comprehensive community response to meth for families and individuals in the Peel region.

A recent secret test of wastewater undertaken by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission has shown a significant rise in the amount of people addicted to methamphetamines. Read more.

►NEWCASTLE: THE RSPCA will not prosecute a Fullerton Cove boarding kennel for animal cruelty, after autopsy results ruled out heat stress as the cause of death for a popular Fern Bay greyhound.

The death of Baron the greyhound on December 28 sparked outrage among animal lovers, after Fern Bay man Nathan Wilson publicly criticised Jane’s Pet Resort following the death of his beloved pet, believing the dog died of dehydration and heatstroke while in the boarding kennel’s care. Read more.

►WOLLONGONG: Kevin Condon's is not the face you usually see splashed across a news story about vaccination. It's usually a chubbier, more youthful visage. About seven decades more youthful.

The babies and preschoolers of parents opposed to vaccinations are the unrivalled targets of government and media focus surrounding immunisation rates. But the children of anti-vaxxers and vaccine-hesitant people form a tiny subset of Australia's under-vaccinated population. Read more.

►GRIFFITH: A convicted killer who's been on the run since skipping a Melbourne court date seven years ago has reportedly been seen in NSW.

Police say Graham Gene Potter was spotted in Griffith twice in July 2016 - once in a shop and another at a gym.

There were reports of possible sightings in August last year, but Victoria Police have released more information about the fugitive and his movements. Read more.

►TASMANIA: Alisha Powell and her mum Cherie Mackean were heartbroken when they discovered two kittens fighting for their lives at Cataract Gorge. 

The pair were about to begin their morning run when Ms Powell heard screeching from the bushes. 

“We thought it was a bird,” she said. Read more.

►MURRAY BRIDGE: There are more than 2,300 little corella sites across South Australia, according to a study released this month by Discovery Circle, an initiative of the University of South Australia.

The statewide report aimed to identify steps, based on research and consultation with the public, to help reduce issues with little corellas. Read more.

► Bronwyn Bishop has avoided a planned review of her use of entitlements over the last 10 years by cutting short her participation in the investigation, which had already led to the former Speaker repaying taxpayers $6700 for costs related to her attending her colleague's weddings and Kerry Packer's funeral. Read more.

►A convicted murderer who attempted to sue the NSW prisons boss over his incarceration in Goulburn's Supermax prison has been shot in Sydney's west.

Emad Sleiman was shot in the chest and leg inside an Auburn apartment block at 9.20pm on Wednesday. Read more.

►A man has died and another man is seriously injured in hospital after their car crashed following a police pursuit in the NSW central west.

Both men were ejected from the car in the single vehicle crash in South Bathurst, near the intersection of Lloyds Road and Vale Road, police said

The car was being pursued by police moments before the driver lost control just after 1pm on Wednesday. Read more.

►There is more to income inequality than the famed 1 per cent versus the 99 per cent or standing chief executive officers next to average workers.

Inequality in wages, new research has found, is increasingly defined by where you work not what your job title is. Read more.

► BANGKOK: Cambodian authorities have permanently banned the sale and export of human breast milk after suspending exports from a US company that has been collecting it from impoverished mothers for more than two years.

The ban has put the spotlight on a global trade in breast milk to other mothers, bodybuilders, cancer patients and breast-milk fetishists. Read more.

► PERU: A Boeing jet operated by Peruvian Airlines caught fire on Tuesday while landing at an airport near the Andean town of Jauja in central Peru after it swerved on the runway, but there were no serious injuries, a government minister said.

Peruvian Airlines said in a statement that the Boeing 737-300 jet drove off the runway for unspecified reasons during the scheduled landing, after swerving to the right. It said that all 141 people on board the flight, which originated in Lima, were evacuated safely. Read more.

► LONDON: London: In the day of terror that besieged Westminster just seven days ago, one particular eyewitness account stood out as especially horrific.

"I saw a body fall into the water," a horrified worker who had been sitting on Parliament's balcony told Fairfax Media.

An hour earlier he had seen the horror Khalid Masood was able to unleash in just 82 seconds, beginning at 2.40pm. Read more.

1461 –  The armies of two kings, Henry VI and Edward IV, collide at Towton.

1827 –  Composer Ludwig van Beethoven is buried in Vienna amidst a crowd of over 10,000 mourners.

1867 –  The United States purchases Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million dollars.

1886 –  Coca-Cola goes on sale for the first time at a drugstore in Atlanta. Its inventor, Dr. John Pemberton, claims it can cure anything from hysteria to the common cold.

1903 –  A regular news service begins between New York and London on Marconi's wireless.

1936 –  Italy firebombs the Ethiopian city of Harar.

1941 –  The British sink five Italian warships off the Peloponnesus coast in the Mediterranean.

1951 –  The Chinese reject Gen. Douglas MacArthur's offer for a truce in Korea.

1962 –  Cuba opens the trial of the Bay of Pigs invaders.

1967 –  France launches its first nuclear submarine.

1973 –  The last U.S. troops withdraw from South Vietnam.

1976 –  Eight Ohio National Guardsmen are indicted for shooting four Kent State students during an anti-war protest on May 4, 1970.

1986 –  A court in Rome acquits six men in a plot to kill the Pope.

Ryker Harris –

Ryker Harris pushes and barters with his parents just like any other three-year-old but unlike his peers he battles every day with a genetic disorder called Meier-Gorlin Syndrome.

His mother Lana Stewart said Ryker was diagnosed within four hours of birth as one of about 53 individuals worldwide with this syndrome. 

“To have this syndrome you need three things, small ears, no kneecaps and short stature,” she said. Read more.