A $633,200 upgrade for Mortlake Swimming Pool has been given financial backing from the state government. Read more.

Set-up crews and bystanders had a lucky escape when a crane brought down a power cable near Lake Pertobe Monday afternoon. Read more.

Councils will struggle to maintain services under a 2 per cent rate cap while also battling state government cost shifting, south-west leaders say. Read more.

Councillors are expected to rule on whether they will grant planning permission for a $9-million Princetown eco-resort at Corangamite Shire’s monthly meeting on Tuesday. Read more.

It's chilly now, but it looks like we could be in for scorchers on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

NSW | The BBL manipulates us – and we love it

Six years in, I am still unsure whether the Big Bash League is a genius-level cricket innovation, a sleight-of-hand trick of marketing flimflam, the perfect wallpaper for summer evenings, a fluke of Cricket Australia riding its own coat-tails, a competition more important than life or death, a complete waste of time, or all of the above. More here.

VIC | Still swinging: Brad Haddin of the Sixers. Photo: Mark Kolbe

A cheer and round of applause rang out across Wangaratta Supreme Court on Monday when child killer Bowe Maddigan was sentenced to life in prison. More here.

VIC | Buddy the rescue dog saves Red Range family from house fire | Video

A rescue dog has saved a Northern Tablelands family after alerting them to a fire in the early hours of Friday morning. More here.

JAKARTA | Emboldened Islamic hardliners seek to enforce fatwa on Christmas costumes

Indonesian police have been accused by mainstream Muslim groups of weakening the rule of law by providing security for Islamic hardliners who visited shopping centres in the nation's second-largest city urging them not to ask Muslim shop assistants to wear Christmas costumes. More here.

THAILAND | Body of mystery 'Western' diver in wetsuit found tied to post off Thai beach

The body of a diver believed to have been a Westerner has been found with his throat slit and tied to a concrete post in waters off the resort city of Pattaya in Thailand. More here.

LONDON | Alexander Downer's bizarre BBC video urging Britain to get on with leaving the EU

Australia's High Commissioner to Britain, Alexander Downer, has appeared in a self-narrated and often wooden short documentary on the BBC to urge Britain to "get on" with leaving the European Union. More here.

1963 - The Berlin Wall was opened for the first time to West Berliners. It was only for the holiday season. It closed again on January 6, 1964.

1979 - ESPN televised its first NHL game. The teams were the Washington Capitals and the Hartford Whales. 

1989 - Off Las Palmas, Canary Islands, an explosion aboard the Iranian supertanked Kharg-5 caused 19 million gallons of crude oil into the Atlantic Ocean. 

1994 - Marcelino Corniel, a homeless man, was shot and mortally wounded by White House security officers. He had brandished a knife near the executive mansion.