Tasmanian snapshot
Early arrival takes off for 18th birthday: Colby Withers was born prematurely in the car park at the Launceston Airport. On Saturday, she turned 18.
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Tasmania lags in productivity: report: The interstate housing boom may hold the key to stimulating Tasmania’s growth, an economist says.
Regional Pitchfest to host Tassie final: Finalists in the Tasmanian Regional Pitchfest are preparing for a showdown on Thursday night where they will highlight the strength of innovation in Tasmania.
State of the nation
Need a national news snapshot first thing - well, we have you covered.
Regional news
► Sydney: A man has died after he was struck by a bus in Sydney's CBD in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The incident happened just after 3:15 am when the man in his 30s exited a ride sharing service and was hit by the bus on the corner of Bathurst and Elizabeth streets. Read on.
► Tamworth: Tamworth boasts about 16,000 registered firearms but police are preparing for an influx of illegal guns to be surrendered in the latest amnesty announced by the government.
For more than two months, Oxley police have been preparing for the three-month free-for-all surrender of unregistered firearms, set to start on July 1. More here.
► Port Fairy: MP James Purcell has declared he will not support the state government’s bill to split the CFA, effectively blocking it.
The Vote 1 Jobs MP’s vote in the upper house was crucial for the bill, which has passed the lower house, to become law.
Mr Purcell revealed his decision after a series of meetings with volunteer firefighters across the south-west in the past two weeks. Read on.
► Bathurst: A 44-YEAR-old man has died in a light plane crash in bushland north of Bathurst.
Police confirmed the plane’s wreckage had been found today following an extensive ground and air search.The plane left an airfield at Upper Turon about 2pm on Friday and did not return as scheduled. Read on.
► Melbourne: Karen Ristevski's brother-in-law has been filmed walking in bushland at the Mount Macedon Regional Park where her body was found eight months after she disappeared.
In a new twist to the case, Vasko Ristevski was spotted in bushland about 60 kilometres from the Ristevski's family home in Avondale Heights while Channel Nine's A Current Affair team was filming a story this week ahead of the one-year anniversary of her disappearance on June 29. Full report here.
► On Saturday Austrian "Aktionism" artist Hermann Nitsch and a team of performers staged a controversial "action" in Hobart as part of the annual Dark Mofo festival. Read on.
► As many people struggle to secure housing in Sydney's expensive rental market, developers are building high-end "boarding houses" with rents as high as $500 per week by exploiting planning laws designed to help low-income earners find homes.
It comes amid a surge in the construction of boarding houses around Sydney, while councils say they are powerless to ensure the housing is actually affordable. More here.
National weather radar:
World news:
► Sumatra: Arda Rizal is known around the world as "Indonesia's smoking baby".
Shocking footage of the toddler precociously puffing on fags went viral on YouTube and became a symbol of the smoking crisis in a country described as a last Eden for tobacco manufacturers. Read on.
► Beijing: A grandmother cradling a screaming toddler, within centimetres of a woman's prone body, her clothes burnt off.
The images from the immediate aftermath of an explosion at a kindergarten gate in eastern Jiangsu province, as parents arrived to collect their children, have horrified China.
Investigators say a homemade bomb was used. More here.
FACES OF AUSTRALIA: Christie McGarrity
Madora Bay resident Christie McGarrity, a year 9 Mandurah Baptist College student, is set to blossom in the enchanting musical The Secret Garden at Melville Theatre this winter.
Written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Marsha Norman and Lucy Simon and directed by husband-and-wife team Katherine and Justin Freind, the production is based on the beloved classic children’s novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Read on.
