►A Griffith pool attendant has been hailed a hero after he jumped in to help a young child who was having trouble at the aquatic centre. Continue reading

►Heard the one about Leonardo DiCaprio moving to Wagga? It's a bit like the one where Robert Downey Jr was changing a tyre out the road. Read more

►Cootamundra’s Bateup family appeared on game show Family Feud on Monday night, to the delight of local residents. Continue reading

►Licensees have defended their power to ban revellers from all of Wagga’s pubs and bars for 12 months in one blow, without police input. An anonymous young woman told The Advertiser she received an “unjustified” 12-month venue barring after a manager “wrongly suspected” she had drugs. Read more

►Leeton Shire Council would like to see diversity when it comes to those putting their hands up to run in this year’s local government election. Read more

►Holbrook residents are being encouraged to come together to improve the town. The new Holbrook Progress Committee will be formed to give residents more control over what happens in the town and give the area direction. Continue reading

►The amount of properties for sale in Leeton shire is decreasing compared to this time last year. With the shire’s rental market typically always a tight squeeze, it appears the same is now happening for properties that are up for sale. Read more

Need a national news snapshot first thing? We've got you covered. 

►PORT MACQUARIE: "He was just a loving kid. He was good to be around. He was one of my best mates."

Tributes are flowing for 15-year-old Jay Reynolds, who lost his life after a fatal leap into the blowhole at Nobby’s Beach on Monday. Read more

►MID NORTH COAST: A P-plate driver has lost his licence and faces $3000 in fines after he was clocked at 165km/h on the new Pacific Highway bypass at Bellingen. Read more

►NEWCASTLE:  Greyhound Racing NSW admitted on Tuesday that its integrity unit had received in 2012 disturbing footage of a trainer using a 6000-volt cattle prod on a dog at The Gardens track made public only last Friday. Read more

► SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS: More than 80 police officers got to work recovering drugs, cash, stolen property and telecommunications equipment in Bowral and across the Southern Highlands as part of a Strike Force Trinculo crackdown. Seven peolpe were arrested. Read more

► TASMANIA: Rebecca White says Labor’s position on power sharing is clear, despite leaving the door open for her party to form minority government in 2018. Read more

► TAMWORTH: Police are appealing for help to find a mother who disappeared from her home three days ago. Isis Ashton was last seen in North Tamworth about midday on Saturday, July 23. Read more

► MT ISA: Police have concluded a major drugs operation with multiple arrests in Mount Isa and Cairns this week. Two operations have resulted in the arrest of over two dozen people, the seizure of a large quantity of drugs and the impounding of almost a million and a half dollars worth of property. Read more

►HUNTER: A woman is in a serious but stable condition in a Hunter hospital with a confirmed case of meningococcal disease, the fifth such case in the Hunter New England area this year. Read more

►WA: Department of Parks and Wildlife officers who captured footage of a cute sub-Antarctic fur seal enjoying a rest on Binningup Beach and the chance to get some sun have asked the public to let the animal relax in peace. Story, video

►BORDER: Former Coalition frontbencher Sophie Mirabella says she's finished in frontline politics and will turn her focus to being a commentator. Read more

►BALLARAT: A grieving mother whose 21-year-old son was killed in a fiery Western Highway collision is calling for the Pykes Creek “death trap” to be widened, so no other family faces the cruel grief she will endure for the rest of her life. Read more

► A "shocked and appalled" Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has called a royal commission into the abuse of youths at the Don Dale detention centre the morning after explosive revelations aired on the ABC's Four Corners program. Read more

► The devastated mother of a newborn boy who died when he was given the wrong gas at a Sydney hospital has described how she held her baby's lifeless body and urged him to "wake up, wake up". Read more

►The statistics on youth suicide in Australia are bad enough but those for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are horrific, a conference in Canberra has been told. Read more

National weather radar

International news

►JAPAN: A knife-weilding man has killed at least 15 people in a slashing spree in a facility for the disabled in the Japanese city of Sagamihara. Read more

►UNITED STATES: Bushfires have scorched the northern foothills of the Los Angeles' edge as 20,000 people have been driven from their homes by the flames. Read more

►FRANCE: An elderly French Catholic priest has been butchered at his own altar by a pair of young attackers linked to Islamic State, who took a small morning congregation hostage. Read more

1850: The first ship carrying passengers under the Assisted Emigration Scheme arrives in Fremantle, Western Australia.

1940: Cartoon character Bugs Bunny makes his first appearance in the animated cartoon, 'A Wild Hare'.

1953:  The Korean War comes to an end with the signing of the armistice between North and South Korea.

Wagga is a long way from the bright lights and the glitz of Miss World Australia. 

It has long been a dream of former Riverina woman Breana Gorman to vie for the coveted pageant title but she was never in a position to apply – until now.

Miss Gorman, 22, placed in the top 13 in the national finals of Miss World Australia at the weekend and she took away much more than just styling tips. Read more