When the man who fatally stabbed 90-year-old Springbank grandfather Kenneth Handford had years cut from his sentence, Mr Handford’s family felt they had been dealt a sledgehammer blow to the heart. Read more.

A crowd-funding page has been set up to support two young children whose mum was suddenly killed in a car crash in Redan last week. Read more.

The government will start randomly drug-testing Australians applying for welfare payments. Read more.

A serial perpetrator of serious family violence including threats to kill will spend 12 months behind bars. Read more.

Federation University students are among the losers from Tuesday’s federal budget after Treasurer Scott Morrison confirmed changes to fees and HECS-HELP. Read more.

Sunny and a top of 16 degrees today after a morning the dropped below zero.

►BUDGET:  Your five minute guide to the budget is here.

►BUDGET: Your ultimate guide to the budget is here.

►BUDGET: Winners and losers

►BALLARAT: When the man who fatally stabbed 90-year-old Springbank grandfather Kenneth Handford had years cut from his sentence, Mr Handford’s family felt they had been dealt a sledgehammer blow to the heart. Read more.

►REDAN: A crowd-funding page has been set up to support two young children whose mum was suddenly killed in a car crash in Redan last week. Read more.

►PORT STEPHENS: A Port Stephens woman whose mother was found with maggots in her mouth the day before she died at a Raymond Terrace nursing home has called for an investigation into the aged care sector. Read more.

​►TRAGOWEL: A 76-year-old farmer from Tragowel in northern Victoria is one of two farmers to be convicted of animal cruelty charges and punished with a significant fine in the past month. Read more.

►WOLLONGONG: Police tape: it’s the universal symbol that screams ‘do not cross’ to all those who encounter it. Everyone but Jonathan O’Hara, that is. Read more.

►WOLLONGONG: Distasteful. Atrocious. Disgusting. That’s just some of the words used in Wollongong court on Tuesday to describe the lewd behaviour of Jai Verma on the night of March 16. Read more.

►KANGAROO FLAT: A Kangaroo Flat resident is warning others after he received a scam phone call. Graeme Stretton said a man called his Kangaroo Flat address just after 5pm today, saying there was an issue with his computer. Read more.

​►WAGGA WAGGA: Savvy investors and first-home buyers are spoilt for choice in Wagga, with homes starting at just $99,000. Read more.

​►PORT PIRIE: Residents have been warned about a scam involving telephone voice recognition. The advice is if you receive a phone call and somebody asks, “can you hear me?”, don’t reply and hang up. Read more.

►The Defence Department will grow its staff numbers by 850 public servants as it pulls funding from Canberra's lucrative private consultant and contractor market. Read more.

►Chinese buyers of new homes in Sydney and Melbourne dominated foreign investment in Australia last year, the Foreign Investment Review Board annual report says. Read more.

►Abortion rights campaigners gathered outside the NSW Parliament on Tuesday in a renewed push to decriminalise abortion and to create protest-free zones around clinics. Read more.

►JAKARTA: In a shock verdict the Christian Governor of Jakarta has been jailed for two years for blaspheming against Islam despite the prosecution requesting only a suspended sentence for the lesser offence of inciting hatred. Read more

►PHILIPPINES: The Turnbull government has denounced Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs that left has thousands dead, declaring Canberra is "deeply concerned" about reports of extrajudicial killings. Read more.

28 BC – A sunspot is observed by Han dynasty astronomers during the reign of Emperor Cheng of Han, one of the earliest dated sunspot observations in China.

1503 – Christopher Columbus visits the Cayman Islands and names them Las Tortugas after the turtles there.

1773 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.

1774 – Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette become King and Queen of France.

1824 – The National Gallery in London opens to the public.

1908 – Mother's Day is observed for the first time in the United States, in Grafton, West Virginia.

1954 – Bill Haley & His Comets release "Rock Around the Clock", the first rock and roll record to reach number one on the Billboard charts.

1962 – Marvel Comics publishes the first issue of The Incredible Hulk.

1975 – Sony introduces the Betamax videocassette recorder in Japan.

1994 – Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president.

Juggling is part of circus life – but how do you juggle family life with the wild world of the sideshow circuit? 

For Simi Capelli, raising a six-year-old daughter while simultaneously raising hell at the World Sideshow Festival is just a part of everyday life.

 In her shows she has lifted washing machines and microwave ovens using nothing but her hair. Read more.