RUSH HOUR: The stories you need to know today
Game of Thrones set a new record for illegal downloads this week and Foxtel wants offenders to be dealt with.
TODAY
• Kanye West has blasted photographer Annie Leibovitz and says he spent four days perfecting his wedding photo.
• Fighting is getting closer to the Iraq capital of Baghdad as the United Nations warns the country is in danger of disintegrating in the face of the assault by Sunni Arab militants.
• Leonardo DiCaprio has made a surprisingly critical comment about one of Australia’s most famous attractions.
• An award-winning author has faced a Twitter backlash after killing and eating a rabbit, saying: “Rabbit ate my parsley. I am eating the rabbit.”
• Game of Thrones set a new record for illegal downloads this week.
10am
That’s it for our Wednesday morning live #RUSHHOUR news blog. You can get across the stories you need to know today below or go to news.com.au for the latest headlines.
9.40am
An investigation into a live-firing drill that sparked one of the biggest bushfires in NSW has uncovered shocking Defence Force failures.
A Defence Commission of Inquiry report published last night outlines in graphic detail how personnel were nearly killed by exploding shrapnel as they tried to contain the fire on a military range littered with unexploded ordnance.
It also describes how Defence ignored the extremely hot weather on the day the fire began, which eventually destroyed about 50,000 hectares of land and three homes around the Blue Mountains.
9.35am
There has been an explosion at a World Cup viewing centre in Nigeria. Witnesses say a suicide bomber in a tricycle taxi triggered the blast, killing several people.
9.20am
NSW Premier Mike Baird has almost done a Bob Hawke, saying on Nova this morning: “I think that any boss that does not let anyone go home early to celebrate the Blues victory is a bum.”
Not sure what this means exactly ...
9.10am
Jailed drug boss Tony Mokbel has been caught placing five-figure bets on major race meetings from inside Victoria’s most secure jail. The Herald Sun reports that Barwon Prison authorities intercepted his coded messages.
8.50am
Melbourne commuters faced long delays on trams and on the road this morning after a fire truck flipped while on its way to an apartment fire.
The truck overturned on tram tracks on Racecourse Rd underneath CityLink about 5am and saw the road closed for hours but one lane is now open each way, the ABC reported.
8.40am
Sad news for Socceroos fans, midfielder Mark Milligan has been ruled out with a hamstring injury and will not play in crucial game against the Netherlands.
8.30am
Game of Thrones has set a new record for illegal downloads this week and consumer group Choice says Foxtel only has itself to blame.
“It expects people to pay for a whole range of products when they may want (just) one,” Choice’s Erin Turner told ABC, and said it had “an outdated business model”.
But Foxtel’s Bruce Meagher said: “I can’t think of any other circumstance where you would say ‘I think you charge too much for this product therefore it is legitimate to steal it’.”
Foxtel is pushing for new laws to force internet companies to block illegal downloads and to send warning letters to offenders.
8.15am
Australia Post donated more than $2 million to an Islamic museum in suburban Melbourne in lieu of a bonus it was due to pay its chief executive, Ahmed Fahour.
The Herald Sun has reported that Mr Fahour asked for the bonus to be donated directly to the Islamic Museum of Australia, of which he is patron.
The donation was made months ago, but has only emerged now, when Australia Post is sacking 900 staff to stem the losses at its domestic mail division.
7.50am
A 27-year-old Sydney man was shot in the buttocks last night. Police were called to Foy St, Balmain after reports of gunfire about 8pm. The man is in a stable condition and police are searching for two people who are believed to have sped away in a stolen Mazda.
7.30am
An award-winning author has faced a Twitter backlash after posting photos of a rabbit that she hunted and then cooked, joking that “the skin which includes the head makes a great glove puppet”.
Jeanette Winterson posted a picture of the carcass and wrote: “Rabbit ate my parsley. I am eating the rabbit.”
Rabbit ate my parsley. I am eating the rabbit. pic.twitter.com/36rOpIxqxj
— JEANETTE WINTERSON (@Wintersonworld) June 15, 2014 Sub-type: comment CAPTION: Rabbit ate my parsley. I am eating the rabbit. pic.twitter.com/36rOpIxqxj— JEANETTE WINTERSON (@Wintersonworld) June 15, 2014
Jeanette Winterson is vile. Theres a world of difference between eatin rabbit bought in a butcher & killin your pet & postin the pics online
— Louise Robertson (@_Looweeze) June 17, 2014 Sub-type: comment CAPTION: Jeanette Winterson is vile. Theres a world of difference between eatin rabbit bought in a butcher & killin your pet & postin the pics online— Louise Robertson (@_Looweeze) June 17, 2014
7.15am
The US military has captured a key suspect linked to the deadly 2012 attack on an American consulate in Benghazi in a secret raid in Libya over the weekend, the Pentagon says.
7.05am
US actor Leonardo DiCaprio says he has witnessed the “environmental devastation” of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef first-hand and has backed a new plan to protect a large area of the central Pacific Ocean.
DiCaprio has backed US President Barack Obama’s proposal for the world’s largest marine sanctuary.
“Since my very first dive in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia 20 years ago to the dive I got to do in the very same location just two years ago, I’ve witnessed environmental devastation first-hand,” DiCaprio said.
“What once had looked like an endless underwater utopia is now riddled with bleached coral reefs and massive dead zones.”
6.53am
Catch up on all the World Cup action on our live blog. This morning: Brazil v Mexico, Belgium v Algeria and Russia v Korea Republic.
6.40am
A cyclist is fighting for his life after being hit by a car in the Sydney suburb of Tempe last night. Police are appealing for witnesses to come forward.
6.30am
Fighting is getting closer to the Iraq capital of Baghdad as the United Nations warns the country is in danger of disintegrating in the face of the assault by Sunni Arab militants.
Washington has deployed some 275 military personnel to protect its embassy in Baghdad, the first time it has sent troops to Iraq since it withdrew its forces at the end of 2011.
It was also mulling air strikes against the militants, who are led by the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) but include loyalists of now-executed Sunni Arab dictator Saddam Hussein.
6.15am
Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s official wedding photo, which is now the most-liked photo on Instagram, took four days to perfect because photographer Annie Leibovitz dropped out of their wedding the day before.
According to the New York Post, West blasted Leibovitz, saying “she was afraid of celebrity”, while he was part of a Cannes Lions panel.
He said he then spent four days of his honeymoon perfecting the photo of himself kissing his wife in front of a wall of roses.
“This was pissing my girl off during the honeymoon, she was exhausted because we worked on the photo so much,” West said.
“Because Annie pulled out, I was like, ‘Okay, I still want my wedding photos to look like Annie Leibovitz,’ and we sat there and worked on that photo for, like, four days because the flowers were off-color.”
The photo has more than 1.93 million likes and more than 35,000 comments.
6am
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.
Dad’s funeral refusal ‘discrimination’: court
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Peek inside Princess’ life in Sydney
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