Good morning here’s your headlines from around regional Australia and beyond. Scroll down and refresh for weather, road reports and more.
MANDURAH: He would be a familiar face to many in Mandurah and Halls Head, but few would know that Sameer Ahmed spent years in Afghanistan doing one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.
Now an Australian permanent resident, Mr Ahmed was an interpreter for Australian and coalition forces on the front line of the war on terror, putting his life on the line to support the fight against the Taliban in the years after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
The 28-year-old hopes to soon be an Australian citizen and he credits his time serving with Australians for the love he has found for his adopted country. Read more.
WA: Hundreds of people attended different Anzac Day services across WA to honour our fallen service men and women.
ESPERANCE: A Nulsen man has been charged after allegedly threatening police and bystanders with a glass bottle outside a local pub.
The 25-year-old man was charged with possessing a weapon with the intent to cause fear, for the incident that occurred around 2am on Sunday, April 23. Read more.
MARGARET RIVER: Members of the Augusta Margaret River State Emergency Service (AMRSES) took part in a real-life rescue scenario on the banks of the Margaret River.
Sent to rescue a person apparently injured after a rock climbing accident, teams arrived to the remote location thanks to the efficient ‘Gator’ all terrain vehicle. Read more.
BUSSELTON: Guide dogs Tinker, Hamish and Java were reunited once again in Busselton to celebrate their graduation day, along with their owners, puppy raisers and sponsors.
Hamish’s owner Stephanie Crozier said she could no longer imagine life without her guide dog and having Hamish had given her more confidence to do things on her own without having to rely on other people. Read more.
Regional news
AN octogenarian farmer who stared down a mining giant has won the world’s pre-eminent award for grassroots conservation.
Two people have been found dead inside a Wangaratta home after an apparent murder suicide.
Police entered the Belle Avenue home about 5.10pm and found the pair dead inside after a shooting.
Seventy-five years ago, Australia braced for impact, from the ever-encroaching conflict of World War II, as it made its way south through the Pacific. At a desperate low in the Kokoda campaign, stretcher-bearers lugged wounded Australian soldiers for days through strangling, unyielding jungle to reach medical help.
National news
Malcolm Turnbull has flagged an Australian military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan for the foreseeable future, saying training of local forces needs to be "a long-term commitment".
Work for the dole has been an expensive "demonstrable failure" that does nothing to lessen the nation's unemployment burden, one of Australia's biggest charities has said.
A 13-year-old boy is among four teenagers accused of bashing a taxi driver, leaving him with serious head injuries and two broken teeth.
Police believe the two girls and two boys caught a taxi to Bridge Inn Road in Wollert, north of Melbourne, about 3am on Tuesday and told the driver that a relative was coming to pay the $45 fare.
National weather radar
International news
North Korea has staged its largest live artillery "bombardment", involving 400 long-range cannons, in the eastern town of Wonsan under the watch of leader Kim Jong-un.
A blackened body lies unidentified on a slab in a Manila funeral home, one of thousands of suspected extra-judicial killings, or EJKs, as they have become known in Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs.
Beleaguered outgoing Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama has revealed an unexpected source of inspiration as he fights allegations of insulting Islam: a small clownfish called Nemo.
On this day | April 26
There are 249 days remaining until the end of the year. This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Tuesday, Thursday or Sunday (58 in 400 years each) than on Friday or Saturday (57), and slightly less likely to occur on a Monday or Wednesday (56).
1956 – First modern container ship, the Ideal X, leaves Port Newark, New Jersey for Houston, Texas.
1991 – Seventy tornadoes break out in the central United States. Before the outbreak's end, Andover, Kansas, would record the year's only F5 tornado.
2005 – Under international pressure, Syria withdraws the last of its 14,000 troop military garrison in Lebanon, ending its 29-year military domination of that country.
