Friday bulletin

28 Dec 2012

Records are being broken in the water and on the pitch and severe thunderstorm warning for Queensland. Here are Friday’s top stories.

Wild Oats XI beats own record

Super maxi Wild Oats XI has broken its own record in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, taking line honours for the sixth time. Their previous record of one day, 18 hours and 39 minutes, set in 2005, was beaten by 16 minutes as they crossed the finish line at 7:23am. Watch the video and read more on the ABC.

Text messaging record

Major telcos are expecting a record-breaking number of text messages to be sent over New Years Eve and New Years Day, forcing them to upgrade their networks. Optus expects customers to send 72 million texts while Telstra is forecasting 61 million. Read the full story.

George Bush Snr takes a turn for the worse

Former US president George HW Bush is in intensive care after a fever delayed his recovery from bronchitis. Although doctors hoped to have him home for Christmas, Bush Snr was forced to spend the holidays in hospital, joined by his family. Read more.

Food Festival ready to go

Organisers of Hobart’s annual Taste of Tasmania are hopeful it will be their biggest festival ever, estimating around 300,000 visitors will attend, of which around 80,000-100,000 will be international. All the details for the festival are in the Events section of this website. You can also read about it on The Mercury.

Clarke beats Ponting’s record

Michael Clarke has surpassed Ricky Ponting’s Australian record for the most runs in a calendar year. Clarke needed just 18 runs to break the record going into the first innings against Sri Lanka yesterday, with Clarke scoring a further 50 runs on top. Read more.

Severe thunderstorm warning for Queensland

Parts of central and western Queensland have been given a severe thunderstorm warning with damaging winds and heavy rain predicted. For a full list of locations that may be affected see Yahoo News.

If you’re in any affected area, share your updates and pictures with us on our Facebook page. Stay safe!