GUNNEDAH: Shenhua’s more than six-year struggle to seek approval for its Watermark mine could see a result in little more than a week. Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt is expected to announce the final decision on the controversial mine before July 9 this year. The huge $1.2 billion mine is proposed for a site 3km west of Breeza. MORE
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TAMWORTH: The love between Paul Rossington and Kristen Schroder was most obvious in their final moments. The couple, who had been together for about nine months, had taken a cruise on the Carnival Spirit in the hopes of strengthening their sometimes volatile relationship. MORE
GLEN INNES: Brayden Gallagher travelled to New Zealand over the weekend to play in the NSW Country under 18’s rugby league side. This is not Gallagher’s first time in New Zealand after making the trip previously to play with the under 16’s country side. MORE
TAMWORTH: Homegrown talent has shone again on television talent show The Voice, with Deanna Rose joining Team Ricky last night. Rose, who has called Newcastle home for 18 months but grew up in Tamworth, said being part of The Voice was “the most rewarding experience I’ve ever had the opportunity to have”.
STATE OF THE NATION
HORSHAM: An investigation is underway to determine the cause of a fire that has left a Horsham business with a $400,000 damage bill. MORE.
WAGGA: Culcairn farmer Scott Mitchell has been embroiled in controversy for the past week but it has not deterred him from looking for love. Mr Mitchell, 36, seemed like a done deal as one of the next farmers on reality show Farmer Wants a Wife but a phone call last week has thrown that in turmoil.
Mr Mitchell wants to close this chapter of his life and move onto the next. Mr Mitchell was told by a representative of Freemantle Media that he was one of the final six farmers they pitched to Channel Nine but that he was replaced by Married At First Sight’s Lachlan at the last minute. MORE.
BALLARAT: A teenager who died after he was hit by a car in Black Hill has been remembered as an “amazing” and “unbelievable kid”. Patrick Bell, 17, was tragically killed while crossing Chisholm Street on Tuesday. The Ballarat East Secondary College student recently celebrated his 17th birthday with his twin-sister. MORE.
MOUNT ISA: A NEW dam is not off the radar for the North West, despite a specific site not being named for the region in the federal government’s Northern White Paper. MORE
BUNBURY: Reoprts of more West Australians falling victim to the ATO scam have escalated in recent weeks, prompting another urgent warning from Consumer Protection.
In the latest case, an 81-year-old Perth man who is nursing his ill wife has lost $110,000 to the scam, the largest loss to this type of scam ever reported in WA. MORE
NATIONAL WEATHER RADAR
NATIONAL NEWS
Joe Hockey has become the first Australian politician to successfully sue for defamation over a tweet.
The decision highlights some of the legal pitfalls of social media, which rewards rapid-fire, snappy missives stripped of context.
But there is very little else that is novel about the Federal Treasurer's $80,000 payout for two tweets from The Age's Twitter account in May last year – or indeed his $120,000 payout for the same words on a newspaper advertising placard.
Aboriginal children are being removed from their families and placed with drug-dealing carers who are demanding that their parents pay to see them, the royal commission into child sex abuse has heard.
Australia's largest new coal project, one hailed by Prime Minister Tony Abbott as a poverty-busting "miracle", is unbankable in the assessment of Queensland's Treasury, which also has question marks over the development's transparency.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
SYRIA: A second Australian man has reportedly died fighting with Kurdish forces in Syria, less than two months after he joined the battle against the Islamic State group.
Described as a "beloved brother who came from far away to do what had to be done," 23-year-old Reece Harding reportedly died on June 27 when he stepped on a land mine during night operations with the YPG (People's Protection Units) in north-eastern Syria.
CHINA: China, the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, has submitted a new carbon intensity reduction target to the United Nations while reaffirming its goal to curb carbon emissions by 2030, or "even earlier".
Premier Li Keqiang made the announcement while during a visit to Paris, where the global climate conference will take place at the end of the year.
TUNISIA: At a makeshift memorial on the site of last Friday's deadly attack, a steady stream of tourists and locals gathered to lay flowers and notes to remember the victims of Tunisia's worst ever terror attack.
With their backs to the deep blue of the Mediterranean Sea, they faced a swathe of sun lounges that now sit mostly empty on the beach in front of the Hotel Imperial Marhaba where so many lost their lives.
FACES OF AUSTRALIA - Rideika Wright
An Albion Park teenager is proud to have helped launch a new national clothing label and can't wait to see people wearing her design.
Rideika Wright, 16, took part in the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience and was invited along with 21 others to participate in a paid internship, with her artwork featured on AIME Apparel T-shirts.
The square graphic features a lizard to represent the year 10 student, as well as showing four "communities" in each corner to depict the different places she has lived - Walgett, Newcastle, Batemans Bay and Wollongong. MORE.