Regional seats prove critical and other top stories.

• Regional seats prove critical

  

  REGIONAL Australia has changed the rules for the country's next election, with seats outside capital cities driving the knife-edge poll result and drawing focus away from metro areas. Analysis of poll results show two thirds of the seats that swung to Labor or are in doubt were outside capital cities, destroying the Coalition's winning margin from 2013. If Malcolm Turnbull is able to form a majority government the regional seats of Capricornia, Herbert, Forde are crucial but were still ..

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• Gallen deserves proper send-off, says Thurston

  

  HIGHLY decorated Queenslander Johnathan Thurston says it will be very sad if New South Wales captain Paul Gallen plays his last Origin match in front of only 60,000 fans at ANZ Stadium on Wednesday night.While Queensland doesn’t care how many Blues fans turn out for game three, having already wrapped up the series 2-0 for the 10th time in 11 years, Thurston said Gallen deserved better than to play his 23rd Origin, the most by any NSW forward, in front of a half-empty stadium. The Blues haven’t ..

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• DPP rejects Baden-Clay's "imaginary" theories

  GERARD Baden-Clay's lawyers cannot propose "imaginary possibilities to explain an embarrassing death" post-trial and then argue the Crown did not address them, a High Court submission argues. Barrister Walter Sofronoff, acting for Queensland's Director of Public Prosecutions, has today responded to submissions from Baden-Clay's defence team in a High Court appeal on charges relating to Allison Baden-Clay's death in 2012. Baden-Clay's murder conviction, after a trial in 2014, was controv..

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• Whincup clips wall but still clocks best time

  

  MOTORSPORT: Supercars leader Jamie Whincup shrugged off a brush with a wall during the first practice session to finish fastest in the second 40-minute hit-out at Townsville’s street circuit today.The damage sustained in the turn-three accident, which launched the Holden Commodore VF into the air, was fixed in time before the second practice run.“Everyone seems to be struggling for rear grip and we had the same problem,” Whincup’s engineer David Cauchi said.“On that last run he clipped the wall..

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• Plans for new $400m theme park

  

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• Ciara mocks sex life

  

  The couple - who tied the knot in Liverpool, North West England, on Wednesday (06.07.16) - previously revealed they planned to abstain from making love until they were married, and it seems they have been making up for lost time now their union is official. In a Snapchat video of herself walking with her new husband, Ciara, 30, recorded herself laughing as she said: "So, baby, you know what we're doing tonight." He replied: "From what we did last night, I'm gonna do it multiple times." ..

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• GET BEHIND HIM: Stanway is last man standing

  

  MMA: Sunshine Coast middleweight Andrew Stanway is just two fights away from claiming a maiden amateur Mixed Martial Arts World Championship, after downing New Zealand’s Jamie Cookson in Las Vegas yesterday morning. British referee Dean Weir called an end to the fight 1:44 into round three, after the technical Stanway perfected a triangle choke submission. Stanway is now last man standing of the Sunshine Coast fighters, after Eben Cox failed to make weight prior to his bout with Pieter Roedulf ..

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• Watchers have a whale of a time as migration continues

  

  AS PODS of whales head north along the east coast on their annual winter migration keen watchers can hope to glimpse the magnificent creatures. Sunreef Diving took snorkellers out on the first whale swim experience of the season on Friday, where they had "some amazing swims with the whales and a surprise guest appearance from an awesome pod of super friendly dolphins". Sunreef Diving took visitors swimming with the whales on Friday for the first time this season. Sunreef Diving R..

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• Shop owner unfazed by being robbed at gunpoint

  

  A MAN who calmly carries on making souvlaki while an armed gunman attempts to rob his Christchurch store is being hailed online as "the chillest chip shop operator ever". CCTV footage posted by Canterbury police on their Facebook page shows the man bagging up a souvlaki when a masked and armed robber enters the Papanui Rd store shortly before 11pm on May 28. Unfazed, the man finishes the order, reaching right past the offender to hand it to a customer. He then calmly turns around and..

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• John Cho: Sulu is gay

  

  JOHN Cho has revealed his 'Star Trek' character Hikaru Sulu is gay. The USS Enterprise helmsman will be seen in upcoming movie 'Star Trek Beyond' as being in a same sex relationship and the father to a daughter, and the 44-year-old actor is pleased with the low-key fashion in which his alter ego's personal life has been introduced to the saga. He told Australia's Herald Sun newspaper: "I liked the approach, which was not to make a big thing out it, which is where I hope we are going as ..

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Sunshine Coast International Readers and Writers Festival program ... .	Muslim leader calls out Islamophobia as Ramadan ends .
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