RUSH HOUR: The stories you need to know today
California killer Elliot Rodger took aim at pretty, blonde girls, but what did they think of him? WARNING: Graphic content.
TODAY
• WARNING: Graphic content below
• The father of a pretty former childhood friend of California killer Elliot Rodger blamed for his vision of ‘mean and cruel’ women, has defended his model daughter.
• Damning CCTV footage captured former detectives Rodger Rogerson and Glen McNamara carrying what appears to be a body. WARNING: Graphic content
• Nigeria’s military has located nearly 300 school girls abducted by Islamic extremists but fears using force to try to free them could get them killed, the country’s chief of defence said Monday.
• Senior public servants are relying on drugs to keep them awake during 20-hour shifts to get the Budget finished.
10am
That’s it for our Tuesday morning live #RUSHHOUR news blog.
You can get across the stories you need to know today below, in the meantime all the latest headlines are right here on news.com.au. See you bright and early tomorrow morning.
9.55am
Australian comedian and novelist Jean Kittson has copped a slew of criticism, dubbed an ‘airhead’ and a ‘train wreck’ after a tumultuous night on ABC’s current affairs program QandA.
Kittson was criticised on Twitter for her attitudes towards political accountability and the deregulation of university fees.
who is this blond, blasé, dippy airhead posing as Jean Kittson on Q&A? Give me Miss Belmont from Hating Alison Ashley, circa 2005, any-day!
— Zane Webster (@Zordrac90) May 26, 2014 Sub-type: comment CAPTION: who is this blond, blasé, dippy airhead posing as Jean Kittson on Q&A? Give me Miss Belmont from Hating Alison Ashley, circa 2005, any-day!— Zane Webster (@Zordrac90) May 26, 2014
#qanda what happened to jean kittson? inarticulate, unfunny and apologetic for the un worthy
— Ben Black (@BenBlackTweets) May 26, 2014 Sub-type: comment CAPTION: #qanda what happened to jean kittson? inarticulate, unfunny and apologetic for the un worthy— Ben Black (@BenBlackTweets) May 26, 2014
9.50am
The Obama administration has accidentally revealed the name of the CIA’s top official in Afghanistan in an email to thousands of journalists.
The official’s name was included in a list of 15 senior officials who met with President Obama at Bagram Air Field and released to the White House “press pool” list, which contains as many as 6000 recipients.
9.45am
One for the Game of Thrones fans, apparently Sophie Turner (who plays Sansa Stark) is actually really funny on set.
Pedro Pascal, who plays Prince Oberyn, says the actress had him in “stitches a lot of the time”, in a Ask Me Anything session on Reddit.
If you don’t want to read the whole thing, here’s our summary of interesting facts about “the Mediterranean Liam Neeson”.
9.35am
Millionaire MP Clive Palmer has arrived at Parliament House in a silver Rolls Royce.
Mr Palmer swapped his Commonwealth car for a more stylish ride this morning, blasting a Van Morrison tune as he arrived.
9.25am
Royalists are up in arms after a German tabloid exposed photo’s of the Duchess of Cambridge’s naked bottom.
Bild.de published a picture taken as Kate’s dress blew upwards after she hopped off a helicopter with Prince William in the Blue Mountains in Australia April.
9.10am
The success of far-right and Eurosceptic parties in European Union polls has sent shock waves through the continent’s political landscape.
France was left reeling after the National Front (FN) topped its poll, meaning the far-right party will send its representative to sit in the European parliament.
The party is believed to have benefited from Euroscepticism fuelled by a belief that the EU is responsible for the country’s current economic woes and disillusionment with the political establishment.
France’s President Francois Hollande, whose Socialist Party was in third place with a humiliating tally of just 13.8 per cent, called for the EU to reduce its role which he said had become for many citizens “remote and incomprehensible”.
8.55am
Rob Kardashian has broken his Twitter silence just days after snubbing his sister Kim Kardashian’s wedding to Kayne West.
The 27-year-old flew back to the US hours before the weekend ceremony after an alleged fight with his sister over his weight gain.
He deleted all his tweets but this morning posted a series of biblical references and wished Kourtney Kardashian’s husband Scott Discick, a happy birthday.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD. Psalm 33:12
— ROBERT KARDASHIAN (@robkardashian) May 26, 2014 Sub-type: comment CAPTION: Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD. Psalm 33:12— ROBERT KARDASHIAN (@robkardashian) May 26, 2014
Happy Birthday @ScottDisick! Love You Brother! pic.twitter.com/815h9ZjLGy
— ROBERT KARDASHIAN (@robkardashian) May 26, 2014 Sub-type: comment CAPTION: Happy Birthday @ScottDisick! Love You Brother! pic.twitter.com/815h9ZjLGy— ROBERT KARDASHIAN (@robkardashian) May 26, 2014
8.40am
Senior public servants are relying on drugs to keep them awake during 20-hour shifts in the race to put together Budget papers.
News.com.au has been told by a user that the drug modafinil was needed to endure a string of long shifts broken by as little as a four or five-hour break.
Modafinil (branded Modavigil in Australia and Provigil in the US) was the same drug taken by helicopter pilots to stay alert as assisting the raid which killed terrorist chief Osama bin Laden in May 2011.
8.22am
Update: Wife of Roger Rogerson, who is wanted for questioning over the alleged murder of student Jamie Gao, reportedly says he is in Sydney and will cooperate with police.
Anne Rogerson told 2UE the 73-year-old former detective returned home from a speaking engagement in Queensland earlier than expected.
The Daily Telegraph has rolling coverage, click here.
8.15am
A Mexican man once listed as the world’s heaviest human has died at the age of 48.
Manuel Uribe had slimmed down to about 394 kilograms, well below his then-record peak weight of 560 kilograms, which was certified in 2006 as a Guinness World Record.
Doctors have not yet certified his cause of death.
7.58am
Nigeria’s military has located nearly 300 school girls abducted by Islamic extremists but fears using force to try to free them could get them killed, the country’s chief of defence said Monday.
Air Marshal Alex Barde told demonstrators supporting the much criticised military that Nigerian troops can save the girls. But he added, “we can’t go and kill our girls in the name of trying to get them back.”
7.48am
South African Paralympian Oscar Pistorius, accused of murdering his girlfriend, has arrived at a psychiatric hospital to begin up to 30 days of tests, as ordered by a judge during his trial.
7.30am
A clever entrepreneur has invented a plastic vault which screws into the sand and holds personal items like purses, keys and money.
Marcal DaCunha’s Beach Vault, expected to retail for $US30 ($33), has a waterproof lid to keep out any liquids and then covered by a towel and pillowcase.
7.15am
Two Asian-backed groups have beaten local rivals - including a consortium fronted by golfer Greg Norman - for plans to build mega-casino resorts in Queensland.
According to The Australian, the Newman government has selected Hong Kong billionaire Tony Fung and the ASF Consortium for two regional “integrated casino resort’’ licences.
Mr Fung’s $8.15 billion Aquis casino resort at Yorkeys Knob, north of Cairns and ASF’s $7.5bn Broadwater Marine project, on the northern end of the Gold Coast, could be under construction by early next year.
7am
A fierce battle has erupted for control of eastern Ukraine’s main airport, just hours after future president Petro Poroshenko vowed the country would not become another Somalia.
Ukrainian fighter jets and combat helicopters on Monday struck the terminal building at Donetsk airport to try to dislodge separatist gunmen who seized the complex, triggering heavy gunbattles.
6.45am
Damning CCTV footage allegedly captured former detectives Roger “Dodger” Rogerson and Glen McNamara carrying between them what appears to be a body.
According to the Daily Telegraph, CCTV footage allegedly captured the two former officers walking into a storage facility with young student Jamie Gao. Minutes later only two of them walked out carrying a body wrapped in a blue tarpaulin, police will allege.
6.30am
Asylum seeker Reza Barati was beaten so brutally during a riot at an Australian-run immigration detention centre in Papua New Guinea that no amount of First-World medical care could have saved him.
A report has found that a Salvation Army employee and PNG security guards paid by taxpayers killed Mr Barati by bashing him with a stick, kicking him and caving his head in with a rock.
The treating doctor who watched the 23-year-old Iranian die believed there was no saving him.
“In the treating doctor’s opinion, Mr Barati would not have survived this injury even if it had occurred in, say, Sydney and he received the best available medical care in that city,” the report of an independent review into February’s violence at Manus Island said.
6.15am
California killer Elliot Rodger blamed his violent misogyny on a pretty former childhood pal who went on to become his vision of all “mean, cruel and heartless” women.
Rodger became obsessed with the fellow British expat and now-model Monette Moio, who was in seventh grade while he was eighth in the same California private school, according to his chilling manifesto.
But Moio’s father has defended her, saying she was not a bully and probably just rejected his aggressive advances.
“She was 10 years old for God’s sake - she can barely remember the guy. He’s a sociopath. She hasn’t seen him since school,” he told the Daily Mail.
“She’s devastated over the whole thing,’ he went on. ‘It’s like she’s being implicated in this terrible tragedy for something she hasn’t done and can’t remember.”
He said that he and his daughter only remember Rodger as a “strange kid”.
6am
Good morning, and welcome to our “headlines in a hurry” morning news coverage. We will be bringing you the best of what’s happening this morning, so you can get across the news quickly.
Horror crash leaves 2 Aussies dead, 1 in coma
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‘Monster’ rain band about to descend
Flood-weary communities in one state are holding their breath as a rain bomb makes its way across the country.
One Nation gets surprise Senate win
One Nation has made a surprise gain in the Senate after its WA candidate nabbed the final spot, while Malcolm Roberts has been returned.