RUSH HOUR: The stories you need to know today
DO YOU think you could be a celebrity? Well one TV family just got a cold, hard dose of reality.
TODAY
• Shocking video footage of a US police officer pushing over a man in a wheelchair has been released.
• The Vatican may stop the naming of godfathers.
• An experimental reality show has proved Keeping up with the Kardasians is not as easy as people think.
10am
That’s it for our 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
9.50am
Airport security is set to get a lot tighter amid fears that al Qaeda has developed a sickening ‘stealth suicide bomb’ and is plotting how to use it.
9.30am
A newly released video of the inside of the sunken cruise ship Costa Concordia has revealed a ghostly wreckage frozen in time.
Salvage workers will attempt to refloat the luxury cruise ship in a few days time.
9.10am
BREAKING: The man sentenced to jail for the bashing death of Thomas Kelly in Kings Cross has reportedly had his sentence increased to seven years after an appeal from the Director of Public Prosecutions. Kieran Loveridge was originally facing four years.
#BREAKING: Kieran Loveridge sentenced to 7yrs for manslaughter of Thomas #Kelly.#TenNews
— Sandra Sully (@Sandra_Sully) July 3, 20149am
The Palmer United Party’s Jacqui Lambie has launched an extraordinary, personal attack on the Prime Minister and his family during her first week as a federal senator.
The straight-talking Tasmanian said Tony Abbott used his daughters for his own political gain and said she “absolutely” had aspirations to be prime minister.
8.50am
A new portrait of Prince William has turned into a royal disaster for the artist, with some comparing it to images of Sloth from The Goonies.
new official portrait of prince william... pic.twitter.com/zik2UEJfwV
— martyn notman (@NFGmart) July 3, 20148.35am
An experimental reality television show that set out to prove anyone could become famous in 12 weeks has been cancelled after just five episodes.
The US show Famous in 12 was aimed at making celebrities of the Artiaga family in California by shooting them for 12 weeks, with the support of celebrity website TMZ.
But the show has been cancelled after just five episodes, according to The Wrap.
Apparently not enough people were watching.
8.20am
Officials wanted for a month to tell residents of an Adelaide suburb that they should relocate due to high levels of an airborne industrial chemical in their neighbourhood.
The South Australian Government has confirmed to The Advertiser that a meeting took place on June 6 to discuss test results that found concerning levels of trichloroethene in Clovelly Park.
8am
A young Gold Coast snowboarder has died while on a working holiday at Perisher Resort.
Gerard Berger, 25, was an experienced snowboarder he had fallen 20m behind a group he was on a trail with on Wednesday. He was found nearly 12 hours later.
7.50am
A foul mouthed commuter who abused children and hurled racist insults at others was last night taken to Wyong police station and charged with offensive conduct.
Meanwhile a Lake Macquarie woman whose children were attacked for sitting on a train seat said she was shocked by the incident.
The family were returning home after a trip to Sydney to see the Lion King.
“She (Sue Wilkins) called the police and her goal was to get my children removed from the train because they were sitting on a seat,” Jade Marr said.
“They were frightened that the police were coming to get them.”
7.35am
The Australian commando killed in a “non-combat related incident” in Afghanistan has been named as 29-year-old Lance Corporal Todd Chidgey from Gosford in NSW.
Lance Corporal Chidgey was killed by a single gunshot at an Australian base at Kabul International Airport on Tuesday afternoon.
7.10am
Is this the end of the godfather? Apparently a southern Italian archbishop wants to stop the naming of godfathers for 10 years to curb the influence of the mafia.
Monsigor Giuseppe Fiorini Morosini, archbishop of Reggio Calabria, said he spoke with Pope Francis about the idea last weekend. The pontiff has asked the bishops of Calabria to discuss the idea and send him a written proposal.
Godparents are named when a baby is baptised and they promise to help raise the child in the Catholic faith. But as depicted in the movie The Godfather, Fiorini Morosini has argued that, in Calabria at least, mob bosses use the “padrino” system to spread their influence to the next generation.
6.45am
A man accused of intentionally letting his toddler son die inside a hot car was sexting a 17-year-old at the time, it has been alleged.
A Georgia resident Justin Harris told police in the US that he was supposed to drive his son to day care the morning of June 18 but drove to work without realising that the one-year-old was strapped into a car seat in the back.
Police say Harris was sexting a number of women and also had two life insurance policies on his son.
6.30am
Tia Maria Jayne Landers — one half of a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde duo — met a grisly end at the hands of a couple who dumped her body in a forest, police will allege.
A 42-year-old man and his partner, 40, both of Brighton, north of Brisbane, are due to front a magistrate in Redcliffe today charged with Landers’ murder.
The mother-of-four was the longtime lover of Wade Bartz, a member of the jailhouse “Angry Gang”, who is behind bars. She went missing last month.
6.25am
An overpass built for the World Cup in Brazil has collapsed and there are reports that two people have been killed.
Flyover has collapsed in World Cup host city Belo Horizonte, local reports of at least 2 fatalities pic.twitter.com/okttIsXdAA
— Dan Roan (@danroan) July 3, 20146.15am
Shocking video footage of a US police officer pushing over a man in a wheelchair has been released.
The Lafayette officer shoved the man, causing him to tip over in his wheelchair, after the 25-year-old ran over his foot in Indiana.
Despite his fellow officers saying he should be fired, the officer was instead demoted, placed on probation for a year and given a 30-day unpaid suspension.
A hearing found the officer guilty of unbecoming conduct.
“While it may have been a ‘reflexive’ act on the officer’s part to remove the heavy wheelchair from his foot, it was a use of force that should have never occurred in the first place,” Chief Patrick J Flannelly said in a statement provided to FOX59.
“The officer should have avoided the path of the wheelchair,”
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.
PM dodges $3m super tax question
Anthony Albanese sidestepped a question on whether he’ll be immediately hit with Labor’s proposed tax of super balances above $3m.
Dad’s funeral refusal ‘discrimination’: court
A man has claimed he was subject to religious discrimination after the government refused to pay for his deceased father’s Greek Orthodox funeral when he could not afford it.
Dire warning for Aussie favourite getaway
A major warning has been issued for travellers planning to head to a favourite Aussie tourist getaway – urging them to “exercise a high degree of caution”.