Canberra Mornings Live: Tuesday March 19

9:48am Stephanie Anderson: Here's one we'll be following up.

Plans for a new $2 million mosque in Monash have been lodged with ACTPLA.

The proposed works include a mosque of approximately 812 metre square floor space, as well as a burial wash room, library spaces and further car parking facilities.

The Canberra Islamic Centre Incorporated currently lease the site, which is approved to be used as a place of worship. The existing stage one works on the 16,045 metre square block include a multipurpose hall, as well as a central courtyard and car spaces.

We'll bring you more on this later today.

9:46am Fleta Page: The Australian War memorial is preparing messages of thanks from Australian school students to send to the First World War battlefields for ANZAC Day commemorations.

The messages, written on small wooden crosses adorned with a single red poppy, will be placed on the graves of Australian soldiers across the battlefields of the Western Front.

The initiative started in 2010 with students inscribing their message, name and school on the crosses. They’ve come from all around the country, but today it will be kids from just across the road at Campbell High School.

They'll also be meeting with the Director of the Australian War Memorial, Dr Brendan Nelson.

George Smith of the Brumbies passes the ball during the round four Super Rugby match between the Brumbies and the Waratahs at Canberra Stadium on March 9. Photo: Getty Images

9:29am Chris Dutton, reporting from South Africa: I caught up with Brumbies legend George Smith today to speak about his Super Rugby return and how he's fitting in since joining Jake White's team two weeks ago.

He said he feels like he never left and that he belongs in Super Rugby. But Brumbies fans shouldn't get too excited, there's still no movement on whether he will be able to play beyond May 31 when his short-term contract expires.

He also said he was disappointed with David Pocock's injury because he wanted to learn of the Wallabies' premier openside flanker.

Smith was part of the Brumbies' last win in Cape Town in 2010. He scored the match-winning try with two minutes remaining, now he's hoping to help a new breed score a triumph.

9:22am John-Paul Moloney: Bah, who needs Paris? Proving you don’t need to got to the City of Lights for a romantic wedding proposal, this timelapse video shows the set up for a gorgeous transformation of a spot on good old Lake Burley Griffin to romance HQ.

Posted on video sharing site Vimeo, it shows Dave and his friends setting the scene up for his proposal to Jo. 

Picnic Proposal: The Set Up and The After! :) from Christine Pobke on Vimeo.

We don’t know the couple, but we’re pleased to hear she said yes. 

9:19am Fleta Page: Traffic ground to a halt during Tuesday morning peak hour after a seven-car accident on the Gungahlin Drive Extension above Belconnen Way closed both south-bound lanes.

Ambulance officers assessed seven patients on the scene, with one woman in her mid-20s taken to Calvary Hospital with minor injuries after the accident, which happened shortly before 8.30am.

Police are reporting oil and coolant is on the road, which will delay the clearing of the accident.

Full story here.

8:55am Natasha Rudra: I'm at a Property Council breakfast where the guest speaker is Rachel Botsman, technology writer and thinker.

Ms Botsman says the most interesting companies are those at the convergence between the social, local and mobile.

She predicts that in the future many of us will have portfolios of jobs rather than one job. She also says we are moving from ownership to access - where the next generation doesn't want to own physical goods, they want access to goods and services, when and where they want it.

Thoughts? 

8:55am Grant Newton: Not a great morning on Canberra's roads. We've had reports the Cotter Road is a carpark, that a 4WD has broken down on Commonwealth Avenue and Northbourne is at a crawl. We'll keep you posted. 

8:47am:  

Expect long delays if you're travelling in from Gungahlin this morning. An accident involving seven vehicles has closed traffic in both directions. One person was injured in the smash - a woman in her mid-20s has been taken to Hospital with minor injuries ... More to come.

Clyde Rathbone with Jake White Head Coach during a Brumbies training session last week. Photo: Getty Images

8:09am Chris Dutton, reporting from South Africa: It's been a cold and wet Monday in Cape Town and Brumbies coach Jake White decided to give his players an extra day of rest by cancelling their scheduled training session. Instead the players were given free time and did more recovery after a brutal win over the Durban Sharks last weekend.

They will return to the field on Tuesday afternoon South African time to start preparing to take on the Cape Town Stormers at Newlands. The team will have Wednesday off as well and rumours are some players are considering going diving with great white sharks off the Cape Town coast.

The new lights at Manuka Oval. Photo: Melissa Adams

8:01am Fleta Page: It has been ten weeks since the six Manuka Oval light towers finished going up, and they’re finally getting a lick of paint.

The work started last week now the cricket is done, and is expected to take a number of weeks as each pole and head frame will require three coats of the protective paint,

The 47 metre-high towers are being painted by three painters in boom lifts, while the head frames are being painted by four abseilers.

But don’t expect any bright colours or feature towers, the paint is Dulux Ferrodor 810 in St. Enoch Grey - a mid-grey colour with a metallic finish.

7:47am: A small update for you on one of yesterday's big stories...

This morning, police forensic officers are still on the scene investigating the suspicious death of a woman in Kambah.

The 42-year-old woman's body was found on Monday morning in the front room of her home on Broad Place by a relative who called emergency services.

Detective Sergeant Stephen Ladd said the woman's death was being treated as suspicious "due to the unknown nature surrounding her death".

We'll bring you more on this story as it unfolds.

Police investigate a suspicious death on Broad Place, Kambah after a 42 year old woman was found in the front room of the home. Photo: Melissa Adams

7:37am Grant Newton:

A story we’ll be following today …

The ACT Government has this morning released a draft planning variation to restrict retail floor space to 1000m² in Canberra shopping centres.

Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development, Simon Corbell, said the primary intention of draft variation 304 was to protect the interests of smaller independent supermarkets in the ACT retail industry.

 “By restricting retail floor space to 1000m² in local centres the government is reinforcing the important role that local centres play in providing convenience retailing to their local communities,’’ Mr Corbell said.  

“Currently supermarkets in local centres have no gross floor area (GFA) limits, but under DV 304, the display and selling area will be limited to 1000m².”

The draft variation is available here. A formal consultation period of six weeks will begin from Saturday March 23, 2013.

A tweet from Tiger Woods.

7:31am Jenna Clarke: In some breaking celebrity couple news, Tiger Woods has taken to his official Facebook page this morning to announce he is dating champion US alpine skier Lindsey Vonn.

The 28-year-old blonde bombshell won gold at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Her good form must be rubbing off on Woods, who has recently rediscovered his winning form on the course.

Brumbies chief executive Andrew Fagan in South Africa. Photo: Chris Dutton

7:11am Chris Dutton, reporting from South Africa: It's not just the Brumbies players breaking down barriers here in South Africa, the club's chief executive Andrew Fagan is also in the Republic for a sponsors and supporters' tour.

The touring group remained in Durban while the players travelled to Cape Town after beating the Sharks on Sunday morning.

Fagan took this snap after meeting a Zulu warrior just outside of Durban today.

6:32am Grant Newton: It’s just 5 degrees in the capital right now - heading for a top of 24. We’re in for some patchy morning fog, clearing to a sunny afternoon with light winds. There’s no chance of rain, according to the Bureau and the fire danger is low to moderate.

The outlook for tomorrow is similar, with an overnight low of 7 degrees climbing to a top of 25.

Isolated showers are predicted for Thursday and Friday.