Hot new home unveiled for emergency services

Christopher Knaus 1:46pm A new $12.5million emergency services training facility, complete with a "fire hot house" and 19.8m high fire training tower, has been unveiled to the public for the first time today.

Alleged massage groping victim 'trusted' masseur

Natasha Rudra 12:34pm One of the alleged victims in the trial of a masseur accused of groping six women clients has broken down in tears as she described him massaging her bare buttocks.

'Fragment of Canberra's birth certificate' re-discovered

Ian Warden 1:09pm Today at Parliament House and with a conjuror's dramatic flourish a white-gloved archivist whisked away a white cloth. His whisking revealed a priceless, 100-year-old, long-lost document that ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher then described as "a fragment of Canberra's birth certificate".

Govt under punting probe for betting agency collapse

Noel Towell 11:45am The territory’s gambling authority is under investigation over its role in the multi-million dollar collapse of online betting shop Sports Alive last year.

Drug trafficker with $1000-a-day habit jailed

Natasha Rudra 12:38pm A Belconnen man who sold methylamphetamine to fund his own $1000-a-day drug habit has been jailed for 15 months.

Celebratory cake should be order of the day

Ian Warden I f you love this city and you'd like an excuse to hold a hastily-arranged, cake-enriched afternoon tea, then today is the 100th anniversary of the day when the inspired entry of Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin of Chicago was declared the winner of the federal capital city design competition.

Garden trail shows lily in excelsa

J ohn Wyndham's nightmarish novel The Day of the Triffids is about the invasion of the earth by tall, cruel, mobile, venomous, killer plants called triffids. One feels sure that Wyndham's real-life plant model (if only subconsciously) for his creation was Australia's Gymea Lily. There are some in the National Botanic Gardens. The Gymea Lily (Doryanthes excelsa) is a stark, dramatic, scary, prehistoric-looking plant with a gigantic and scraggy red flower brandished atop a burly stalk.

Carney's moment is finally here

GLENN JACKSON Todd Carney didn't want to be today's story. He wants to be tomorrow's; lauded for his feats on the field.

20 caught in first year of drug tests

Christopher Knaus Twenty Canberrans have been caught drug-driving in the first year of roadside testing, while civil liberties groups continue to protest the zero-tolerance approach of the new laws.

Boulder solution shuts highway

Christopher Knaus The Kings Highway will be shut for 18 hours today to allow a boulder to be blasted from the mountainside, while authorities begin preparing for a ''long-term solution'' to the instability of the Clyde Mountain.

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Union opposes religious schools

Noel Towell The public sector teachers' union has urged the ACT government to block proposals for three faith-based schools to build new campuses in Canberra's north and west.

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Creative city spaces are just around the corner

Stephanie Anderson Canberrans are used to developments going up around them, but recent construction near Green Square in Kingston has been stopping them in their tracks.

Abuser's sentence reduced

Natasha Rudra The ACT Supreme Court had reduced the sentence of a man who called his 15-year-old daughter a ''dog c---'' and slapped her so hard he knocked over a highchair with his three-year-old child in it.

Light rail costs off the tracks: peak body

John Thistleton The ACT government's cost estimates for a light-rail network between Gungahlin and Civic have come in for more criticism, this time from the Australasian Railway Association, the nation's peak rail industry group.

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Son's defamation payout over sex allegations doubled on appeal

Natasha Rudra The ACT Court of Appeal has more than doubled a defamation payout to a martial arts instructor who was falsely accused of being a paedophile, awarding him $50,000 on appeal.

Toddler found in pool

A toddler was in critical condition last night after being found floating face down in a pool in Young. The 22-month-old boy's grandmother performed CPR until help arrived. He was taken to Young District Hospital and then to Sydney Children's Hospital.

What comes after losing the marriage plot

Gia Metherell Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jeffrey Eugenides - on his first visit to Canberra - pronounced himself quite at home in the city.

'Eye in the sky' spies on illegal waste dumpers

Rosslyn Beeby A satellite sensor launched from a space centre in French Guyana is being used by the NSW Environment Protection Authority to track illegal dumping of ACT construction waste across the border.

Roo cull costs rise this year

Lisa Cox This year's cull of thousands of kangaroos by the ACT government will cost more money to kill fewer animals than in 2011.

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Fanfare: Canberrans rally for music school

Emma Macdonald In the biggest event ever staged at Llewellyn Hall, more than 1500 Canberrans packed the main venue and spilled over into another hall last night at a free concert in support of the embattled ANU School of Music.

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Greens' rejection of Rudd scheme increased pollution: Leigh

David Wroe Labor backbencher Andrew Leigh launched a scathing parliamentary attack last night on the Greens' rejection of Kevin Rudd's original carbon plan, saying the delay had caused pollution equal to emissions from one million cars each year.

Reduced sentence for teen slap

Natasha Rudra 3:52pm The ACT Supreme Court had reduced the sentence of a man who slapped his 15-year-old daughter so hard he knocked over a highchair with his three-year-old child in it.