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Today’s top trending stories and news.
The search for flight MH370 will continue today.
Source: Getty Images
TODAY:
• New satellite images have found about 122 objects floating in the southern Indian Ocean;
• Sixteen people have been confirmed dead and 176 others are missing following a mudslide in the United States;
• Russian forces have taken control of 51 naval vessels in Crimea, reducing the Ukrainian navy to just 10 ships.
LIVE UPDATES
9:56am
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann
has rejected claims that the sale of Medibank Private will increase the federal budget deficit, saying it is unsustainable to keep drawing large dividends from the insurer.
“(Labor) raided Medibank’s capital reserves. That is not sustainable over time,” Senator Cormann told ABC Radio this morning.
“The proposition that somehow the commonwealth would be able to draw half a billion dollars in dividends on a yearly basis is just a ridiculous proposition.”
Senator Cormann was referring to Labor finance spokesman Tony Burke’s claim that the government will lose annual dividends of up to $500 million by privatising Medibank.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann.
Source: News Corp Australia
9:47am
A man has been arrested in connection with that aforementioned
double shooting in western Sydney
.
Police raided the 27-year-old’s home this morning, and say he is “assisting officers with their inquiries.”
A teenager was found with four gunshot wounds in the suburb of Merrylands last night. He was taken to hospital, and is now in a stable condition.
Officers were also called to a second crime scene nearby, where they found a 62-year-old man who had been shot in the chest. That victim is in critical condition.
Police pictured at one of the crime scenes.
Source: News Corp Australia
9:35am
Political and economic sanctions have failed to dissuade Russia from annexing the Crimean peninsula, so a group of Ukrainian women has called for a different kind of embargo.
They have launched a campaign called “Don’t give it to a Russian,” which has a very simple message.
No sex for Russian men
.
“You need to fight the enemy in every way you can,” the women say. “We tried to make it provocative because it attracts attention.
“The deeper, true meaning is do not give away your dignity, your freedom, your motherland. It is more about Putin and his policies, it is not racist.”
“Don’t give it to a Russian.”
Source: Supplied
9:26am
Former prime minister John Howard
disagrees with Tony Abbott’s decision to reintroduce knights and dames into the Australian honours system, saying even conservatives would consider the move to be “somewhat anachronistic”.
Mr Howard also says it is “unlikely” he would accept a knighthood if he were offered one, the Australian Financial Review reports.
“Despite urging from a number of people, I did not restore knighthoods,” Mr Howard wrote in his book, Lazarus Rising.
“For me, this was an on-balance decision as in some respects the knighthood system, properly applied, was a way of giving special recognition to certain people.”
Mr Howard’s views on the matter have not changed.
Former PM John Howard.
Source: News Corp Australia
9:16am
The
“partially mummified” body of a 66-year-old
German woman has been found in her apartment more than six months after she died.
The Frankfurter Neue Presse newspaper says the woman’s television was still on when she was found, with a program guide for last September nearby.
Residents in the 30-apartment block noticed an unpleasant smell in the staircase in recent months, but nobody informed the authorities. The woman’s landlord opened her apartment after seeing the uncollected letters jammed in her mailbox.
9:07am
South Korea’s largest daily newspaper, the Chosun Ilbo, says a source has revealed that
North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is planning an invasion
.
“Armed confrontation could take place on the Korean peninsula in 2015,” the source said.
“Since he came to power in late 2011, Kim Jong-un has often said his aim is reunification ‘through force’ and that he would personally drive a tank and advance into Seoul.”
It has to be said, North Korean leaders tend to blow a lot of hot air, and South Korean media outlets can be a little sensationalist at times, so this report should be read with a healthy dose of scepticism.
But he looks so nice in this picture!
Source: AFP
8:57am
Police have cordoned off a park near Newcastle after the
discovery of a man’s body
.
According to NSW police, a member of the public was walking their dog at 8:20am when they came across the body.
“Police attended and established a crime scene and specialist forensic (officers) and detectives are canvassing the area,” a spokesman said.
“The deceased is an unidentified man aged in his 40s.”
The man was found lying facedown and was naked from the waist down, with his hands tied behind his back.
Forensic services have arrived at the park.
Source: News Limited
8:48am
Lust-inducing
British actor Benedict Cumberbatch
is going from Sherlock to Shakespeare.
Cumberbatch will play Hamlet at London’s Barbican Centre for 12 weeks between August and October next year. It’s a huge coup for the 1,160-seat venue, which can expect to sell a lot of tickets now.
Give the man another trophy.
Source: Getty Images
8:39am
Police in Thailand say they have seized
147 kilograms of heroin
, which they believe was destined for Australia.
The single haul is so large that it exceeds some of Thailand’s recent yearly seizure totals. Its street value would have been $105 million.
8:30am
Former environment minister Peter Garrett
thought the installation of insulation batts was “not that hard”, but a lack of regulation around the scheme he oversaw killed 25-year-old Matthew Fuller, a royal commission has heard.
The commission has been told Mr Garrett had personal experience of installing insulation.
In an internal letter from a meeting in April of 2009, public servant Martin Hoffman revealed an Environment Department secretary had traded stories with the minister.
“The secretary and the minister compared their notes on their personal experience in installing batts (not that hard).’’
The latest revelation follows evidence that the insulation scheme rollout prioritised boosting the economy over safety and training, with a key public servant unable to recall safety ever being discussed.
Peter Garrett.
Source: News Corp Australia
8:21am
New video footage has emerged from the
mudslide in Washington state
, showing the dramatic moment when a toddler was pulled alive from the mud.
The clip, taken on Saturday, shows four-year-old Jacob Spillers trapped in the wreckage of his home. Emergency workers pull the boy to safety.
Jacob’s three siblings are still missing, along with his father. His mother survived the disaster, because she was at work when it happened.
Dramatic raw video from the Snohomish County Helicopter Rescue Team shows workers saving a four-year-old boy from the devastating mudslide that hit a rural Washington state community on March 22. Photo: Snohomish HRT
8:11am
Male North Korean university students have reportedly been told to get
the same haircut as dictator Kim Jong-un
.
The new “fashion guideline” was introduced two weeks ago. Before that, all North Korean men were allowed to pick their haircuts from 10 “approved styles”.
Apparently, men also have to cut their hair every 15 days, because the nation’s authoritarian government doesn’t like long, flowing locks. Or something.
You’d be happy too if you had that gorgeous haircut.
Source: AFP
8:01am
An innocent bystander is fighting for his life this morning after being
shot in the chest
in Sydney’s west, the Telegraph reports.
Police were scouring two separate crime scenes last night after a double shooting in Merrylands.
A 20-year-old man with four gunshot wounds was treated by paramedics at one of the crime scenes. A second man, believed to be in his 50s, was found nearby with a gunshot wound to the side of his chest.
The most likely scenario being investigated by police surrounds reports the 20-year-old man was involved in an argument between two groups of people.
He was shot when the argument escalated, and the man in his 50s, having heard the commotion outside his home, was attacked when he went to investigate.
Two men have been shot in Sydney’s west.
Source: News Corp Australia
7:50am
Egyptian politician and military commander
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi
has resigned from his two positions as the nation’s defence minister and army chief, and announced he will run for the presidency, Reuters reports.
He is expected to win the forthcoming election easily.
This man could be the next Egyptian president.
Source: AFP
7:39am
Surgeons at a hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania are about to test a groundbreaking emergency technique, placing knife-wound and gunshot victims in
“suspended animation”
to buy time to fix injuries that would otherwise be lethal.
“We call it emergency preservation and resuscitation,” says Samuel Tisherman, a surgeon at the hospital.
The technique involves replacing all of a patient’s blood with a cold saline solution, which rapidly cools the body and stops all cellular activity, New Scientist reports.
“If they’re dying and you suspend them you have a chance to bring them back after their structural problems have been fixed,” says another surgeon, Peter Rhee.
You can read more
here
.
Surgeons do the strangest things.
Source: News Limited
7:31am
Three
Secret Service agents
protecting US President Barack Obama in Amsterdam this week were sent home and put on leave after a night of drinking.
“One of them was found drunk and passed out in a hotel hallway,” The Washington Post reports, citing three unnamed people familiar with the case.
The incident is reminiscent of the April 2012 scandal involving
Secret Service agents and prostitutes
in Colombia.
These Secret Service agents really aren’t very good at keeping secrets.
“Bye guys. Glad y’all had fun.”
Source: AP
7:22am
The driver of the commuter train that crashed at
Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport
has admitted she “dozed off” before the accident, waking only when the train jumped off its tracks and climbed an escalator.
The woman had been working as an operator for about two months, and had previously fallen asleep on the job in February. That time, her train partially missed a station.
The crash injured at least 30 people and caused more than six million dollars worth of damage.
A video has been posted online showing the CTA Blue Line derailment at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. At least 30 people were injured. Courtesy bizipapoHD/YouTube
7:13am
A woman is set to be executed for a crime
her son has confessed to committing
.
The Attorney General in the US state of Mississippi has requested that 57-year-old Michelle Byrom be put to death for hiring her son’s friend to kill her abusive husband while she was in hospital.
But Ms Byrom’s advocates say she deserves a stay of execution, chiefly because her son Edward confessed to the 1999 killing in three letters smuggled to his mother, and in another statement to a court-appointed psychologist.
You can read more
here
.
Michelle Byrom.
Source: Supplied
7:03am
There were undoubtedly some squeals of excitement when
Game of Thrones star Kit Harington
took his Kit off, so to speak, in the show’s third season.
But you weren’t perving on Harington’s rear end, I’m afraid. The actor was using a butt double.
“When it came down to it, I had a broken ankle,” Harington says. “So the only time you saw my ass, it wasn’t my ass.”
If you’re disappointed, just go and see the film Pompeii. You’ll feel better.
Ygritte can’t believe it.
Source: Supplied
6:54am
The engineer who stands accused of
murdering Singaporean student Meena Narayanan
found her on an Indian marriage website, The Courier-Mail reports.
Police say Senthill Kumar Arumugam stabbed the 27-year-old student to death in a Brisbane hotel early on Tuesday morning.
Mr Arumugam allegedly said he had sex with Ms Narayanan in Singapore, which had caused the pair to become depressed because, in Hindu culture, it is wrong to have sex outside of marriage.
You can read more about the case at
The Courier-Mail
.
Meena Narayanan was stabbed multiple times.
Source: Supplied
Mr Arumugam has been charged with murder.
Source: Supplied
6:45am
A female teacher has avoided jail time in Britain after
becoming “infatuated” with one of her students
, The Daily Mail reports.
Bernadette Smith, a married 35-year-old, spent a night in bed with 16-year-old Gary Ralston, wearing only her jeans and a bra.
“I was thinking I was quite lucky. A lot of the boys fancied her,” Gary says.
“I couldn’t believe she was with me. It was the last thing I expected. She said she thought she was going crazy but couldn’t help the way she was feeling.”
The teenager says he worried about Ms Smith’s job, husband and family, but she “didn’t seem too bothered”.
Ms Smith has since separated from her husband. She has been suspended from teaching, and will spend two years on a sex offenders’ register.
Bernadette Smith.
Source: Facebook
6:33am
Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten
is reportedly preparing to reduce his party’s ties to the union movement by scrapping rules that restrict ALP membership to people who belong to a union.
Mr Shorten hinted at the reforms in his speech to the National Press Club yesterday, the Telegraph reports.
“When it comes to modernising our relationship with the unions, we have to,” he said. “We have to appeal to people who might think they don’t want to be in a union but they’d like to be involved with the Labor Party.”
Mr Shorten is expected to announce further reforms to the party’s structure within weeks, to limit the damage to Labor ahead of the government’s royal commission into the union movement.
Bill Shorten at the Press Club yesterday.
Source: News Corp Australia
6:24am
A New York jury has found
Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law, Suleiman Abu Ghaith
, guilty of conspiring to kill Americans and supporting terrorists.
The 48-year-old preacher and former al-Qaeda spokesman now faces life imprisonment.
US prosecutors alleged Abu Ghaith was an al-Qaeda insider who inspired a new generation of terrorists as the group’s main messenger following the 9/11 attacks.
Pic: AFP
Source: AFP
6:16am
Sixteen people have been confirmed dead and 176 others are missing following the
mudslide in the US state of Washington
.
Hundreds of rescuers are still combing through wreckage, four days after the side of a hill collapsed on homes in Snohomish County.
They have been using helicopters, tracking dogs, boats, hovercraft and heavy earth-moving equipment to sift through the massive pile of mud and debris.
The operation is still being treated as a rescue effort.
Snohomish County Sheriff Ty Trenary surveys the wreckage from a helicopter.
Source: AP
A ground crew transfers a worker who was injured working on the mudslide into a waiting ambulance.
Source: AP
A view of the hillside that gave way.
Source: AFP
6:10am
New satellite images have found about
122 objects floating in the southern Indian Ocean
, raising hopes that the search for flight MH370 may be closing in on the plane’s resting place.
The objects, which are all between one and 23 metres long, were picked up by a French satellite four days ago.
It is the biggest field of possible debris spotted so far in the multinational search, and is being considered “the most credible”.
You can read all the latest news from the search
here
.
Is the search narrowing in on the location of the flight MH370?
Source: Getty Images
Officials say new satellite images have revealed 122 potential pieces of debris from missing flight MH370.
6:06am
A defence lawyer for Max Clifford
, Britain’s top celebrity publicist who is on trial for a string of sexual assaults, has accused prosecution witnesses of providing unreliable evidence about the size of his client’s penis.
Richard Horwell said conflicting claims made by female witnesses in the trial, suggesting the 70-year-old had either a “micro-penis” or one that was “enormous”, were all incorrect.
“Certainly not freakishly small and certainly not enormous. Not one of these witnesses can be relied upon,” Mr Horwell said. Apparently a doctor has measured Mr Clifford’s manhood, just to make sure.
Mr Clifford is denying 11 charges of indecent assault, which stem from a series of incidents between 1966 and 1984.
Max Clifford poses for members of the media as he arrives at court.
Source: AP
6:02am
Russian forces have completed their takeover
of the Ukrainian navy’s assets in Crimea.
Ukraine’s navy has been reduced to just 10 vessels, with the other 51 it held at the beginning of March now flying the Russian flag, Britain’s Telegraph reports.
Russia has also taken control of the eastern European nation’s combat dolphin program. That’s right, the Ukrainian dolphins have defected.
The Soviet Union began training dolphins and other marine mammals to locate mines and detect enemies back in the 1960s. When the USSR collapsed, Ukraine inherited the dolphins and their trainers.
Russian sailors stand on the deck of their ship, the Suzdalets, as it enters the bay of Sevastopol.
Source: AFP
The dolphins have defected.
Source: ThinkStock
6:00am
Good morning, and welcome to our “headlines in a hurry” news coverage. We’ll be bringing you the morning’s biggest stories so you can get across the news quickly.
RUSH HOUR: The stories you need to know today
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