In brief
POLICE are appealing for information after a boy was approached by a man in a car at Glen Innes on Saturday.
About 6.30pm, a three-year-old boy was playing in the front yard of his home when a car pulled up outside the house.
Police have been told a man inside the car attempted to lure the boy into the vehicle.
The child screamed and his mother rushed outside before yelling at the man who then sped off in a white Holden Commodore.
Keeping time
ARMIDALE’S train service is making record time.
SINCE the new regional train timetable started last month, the Armidale Xplorer service has exceeded its On Time Running (OTR) target of 78 per cent by more than 10 per cent, NSW TrainLink’s Chief Executive Rob Mason said.
“NSW TrainLink achieved 91.1 per cent of the OTR for the Armidale to Sydney and Sydney to Armidale services in the first four weeks of the new timetable,” Mr Mason said.
“It has been a smooth transition into the new timetable for the Armidale Xplorer service. This is a great start, but we still have a lot of work to do to deliver reliable services to our customers.”
Path of service
CHILD and family welfare NGO Pathfinders will mark 30 years of service to the New England region next week with an anniversary dinner at University of New England homestead Booloominbah.
In his first public engagement as Patron of Pathfinders, former Supreme Court judge James Wood will be guest speaker at the dinner.
Mr Wood became a household name in NSW for his role in the landmark investigation into the Child Protection System of NSW in 2008 and as Royal Commissioner for the Inquiry into Corruption within the NSW Police Service from 1994-1997.
Tickets to the formal dinner can be purchased at www.trybooking.com/dwad or by calling Beth Ford on 6771 1527.
Green milestone
AN ENVIRONMENTAL celebration will be held in Armidale this Sunday.
Residents are being encouraged to gather at Kent House in Faulkner Street at 5pm to reflect on their place in the natural world.
Several local groups are supporting the celebration, which is the final community event in the Armidale sesquicentenrary celebrations.
‘Selfie’ rates
A STUDENT from University of New England can lay claim to inventing the term “selfie” – named 2013 word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries – after its first known use was revealed to be by a student describing a photograph taken while drunk at a 21st birthday party.
The dictionary editors said “selfie” – which refers to a self-portrait photograph – was first used in September 2002 to describe a photograph in a forum posting on the ABC website.
The student called himself “Hopey” and posted the now famous photograph from the UNE server while seeking advice about stitches in his lips.
