RUSH HOUR: The stories you need to know today

A LETTER that contained cyanide has been mailed to US President Barack Obama. And the suspected sender has done it before.

Melbourne terrorist Suhan Rahman, right, has reportedly been killed in Syria. Melbourne jihadi Mahmoud Abdullatif, left, is believed to have died earlier this year.

GOOD morning and welcome to our morning news coverage. We will be bringing you the best of what’s happening this morning so you can get across the news quickly.

TODAY:

10am

That’s it for Rush Hour this morning. Get across today’s headlines below, and check back in tomorrow from 6am for our next live morning blog.

9.45am — Jon Crier spills on Charlie Sheen’s meltdown

Charlie Sheen, Angus T Jones and Jon Cryer before their Two and a Half Men partnership went sour. Picture: AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

Jon Cryer has given an amazing account about what really went on behind the scenes of Two and a Half Men with his former co-star Charlie Sheen.

Among the juicy anecdotes in his new memoir, So That Happened, is that Sheen regularly shared with Cryer X-rated pics of people he was sleeping with and turned to prostitutes when his dating life was struggling.

Sheen also once asked Cryer to stash his prodigious supplies of his porn when his then wife Denise Richards visited the set.

Read more here.

9.30am — Australia included in 80th-anniversary edition of Monopoly

Board game Monopoly is releasing a Melbourne version of the game. Lord Mayor Robert Doyle and Mr Monopoly held a press conference to announce all the details. Pictured is generic pics of the board game Picture: Paul Loughnan

Australia, we’ve made it: Sydney has been included on to the 80th-anniversary edition of Monopoly. But maybe we shouldn’t get excited just yet.

You’ll remember that the iconic board game has a hierarchy in terms of how desirable its real estate is. So where how does Sydney fare?

Our largest city has scored a spot on the magenta end of town. You know, Pall Mall? Oh, and it’s right next to jail.

Read more here.

9.10am — Crossbench Senators slam Abbott’s negotiating style

Crucial crossbench Senators have slammed Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s negotiating style in an extraordinary front-page story in today’s Australian newspaper, with the headline “Perhaps the PM just isn’t any good at politics”.

Tasmanian independent Jacqui Lambie has met with the PM only twice and she remains unimpressed with him.

“He just sits there and ums and ahhs,” she said. “He’s either incompetent or doesn’t know the subject.”

Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm was equally underwhelmed: “I have to say in the meeting I had with him, they weren’t relationship-building, they were just an exchange of pleasantries.”

Here’s the full story.

8.55am — Police hunt man after brutal stabbing murder

Police are seeking public assistance to identify this man.

Investigators want to speak to this man.

Police want to speak to this man in relation to the cold-blooded stabbing murder of a teenage schoolgirl in suburban Melbourne.

Homicide Squad detectives obtained the image of the man on a bus minutes after the frenzied Doncaster attack, which led to the death of 17-year-old Masa Vukotic.

The picture shows the man standing on the 7.09pm bus, which he boarded on Doncaster Rd.

Here’s the full story.

8.45am — Envelope containing cyanide mailed to Obama

An envelope that contained cyanide has been mailed to the White House.

The suspected sender of the letter is known to the Secret Service, the organisation tasked with protecting US President Barack Obama and his family. The suspect has sent multiple suspicious items with rambling messages and foreign substances over the past two decades, AP reports.

The envelope was received at a mail processing centre away from the White House and a test on Tuesday returned a “presumptive positive” for the toxin.

8.30am — Is SBS about to dump football from its schedule?

SBS is reportedly on the verge of dumping football from its schedule.

Fairfax reports that SBS has plans to dramatically scale back its 35-year relationship with the world game, including offloading its commitment to screen A-League matches and the FIFA World Cup.

The publicly owned multicultural broadcaster has broadcast each World Cup tournament since 1990.

Here’s the full story.

8.15am — Australian killed in museum shooting attack

Tunisian security forces secure the area after gunmen attacked Bardo Museum. Picture: AFP Photo/Fethi Belaid

An Australian is among the 17 tourists killed when gunmen stormed the national museum in Tunisia.

Gunmen stormed the building killing foreign tourists and two Tunisians in brazen daytime assault.

Apart from the Australian, the dead include five Japanese, four Italians, two Colombians and one each from France, Poland and Spain, Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid said.

Here’s the full story.

7.55am — Netanyahu pulls off stunning victory in Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing party has scored a resounding victory in Israel’s election.

The win was a stunning turnaround after a tight race that had put his lengthy rule in jeopardy.

Netanyahu surged ahead after a last-minute lurch to the right, in which he opposed Palestinian statehood and vowed continued settlement construction, setting the stage for fresh confrontations with the White House just weeks after criticising US talks with Iran in a divisive address to Congress.

Here are the full details.

7.45am — ‘Father of the archangel of death’ wins fans in fight against IS

Celebrity soldier Ayyub Faleh al-Rubaie.

The face of the fight against IS.

A fearsome Iraqi soldier, dubbed the “father of the archangel of death”, has gained a massive following as part of the battle against Islamic State.

Wielding an axe, sword and machine gun and sporting a healthy beard and beaming smile, Ayyub Faleh al-Rubaie has become a legend in the war against the terrorist organisation, the BBC reports.

A Facebook page dedicated to the fighter lists him as a “public figure” and has been liked more than 340,000 times.

Read more here.

7.10am — Cyclone Nathan to hit northern Queensland tomorrow

Cyclone Nathan off the coast of Queensland, approaching Cooktown.

Parts of north Queensland can expect destructive winds of up to 280km/h and a 2m storm surge early tomorrow as Cyclone Nathan smashes into Cape York.

The cyclone intensified into a category 3 last night, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of residents, mine and resort workers, The Courier-Mail reports.

Weather bureau forecasters expect Nathan to come ashore about 4am, which would ensure lesser damage than if the cyclone’s storm surge were to coincide with a 3.3m high tide at 9am.

It will begin battering Cape York’s east coast late today.

Read more details here.

7am — Abbott talks down prospect of early election

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has played down reports that his government could be headed to an early election.

The prospect of a double dissolution was raised at a Cabinet dinner on Monday night, it is understood.

But Mr Abbott has told AAP, through a spokesman, that “the government intends to serve a full term”.

6.35am — Calls to lift drinking age

There are calls this morning to lift the legal drinking age from 18 to 21.

A National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund report, led by researchers from Deakin University, has argued that the drink age should be raised, alcohol ads should be banned, the number of suburban liquor stores should be limited and “violent venues should be named and shamed.

The researchers argue their measures — which also include using minors in stings to catch out bottle shops selling to the underage — are designed to reduce violence.

Read the full story in The Courier-Mail.

6.30am — Pirates on treasure hunt for natural busty wenches

It’s a case of “the bigger, the better” for extras in the latest Pirates of the Caribbean instalment, which is being shot in Queensland.

An agent for the Pirates sequel Dead Men Tell No Tales has made a casting call for “busty ladies” for extra work in the $250 million Hollywood blockbuster.

“Looking for CAUCASIAN ladies 18-50 that are a dress size 8-12 and a rocking a D-FF cup. Natural ONLY (NO IMPLANTS!!),” Bob Hopes Casting wrote on its Facebook page.

The Gold Coast Bulletin has the whole story.

6.15am — Baby-faced Huxley killer had stalked before

Daniel Jack Kelsall leaves the NSW Supreme Court after being found guilty of the frenzied stabbing of Neutral Bay businessman Morgan Huxley. Picture: Craig Greenhill

It has been revealed that the man convicted of murdering and molesting businessman Morgan Huxley had stalked two other men.

Police are confident that they have stopped a serial killer in the making, The Daily Telegraph reports, after 22-year-old kitchenhand Daniel Jack Kelsall was found guilty yesterday of the 2013 frenzied stabbing murder.

Two men have reported to police that they also had chilling encounters with Kelsall, including one man who said the killer followed him almost to his front door in Neutral Bay a week after Huxley’s murder.

Here’s the full story.

5.30am — Melbourne IS terrorist Suhan Rahman reportedly killed

Suhan Rahman.

IS jihadist Suhan Rahman (left) with notorious Sydney terrorist Mohamed Elomar.

Melbourne terrorist Suhan Rahman has been killed while fighting for Islamic State in Syria, his fellow extremists claim.

A woman claiming to be his wife says that Rahman, aka Abu Jihadi al Australi, was killed in a clash in Syria, the Herald Sun reports.

It is believed he died while fighting for IS in the city of Kobane, a Kurdish stronghold near the Turkish border.

The 23-year-old rose to infamy when pictures of him holding a silver-plaited AK47 while posing with fellow Melbourne jihadi Mahmoud Abdullatif emerged. It was widely reported that Abdullatif was killed earlier this year.

Read the full story in the Herald Sun.

— report by James Dowling