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RUSH HOUR: The stories you need to know today

A VIRAL video of a sea turtle writhing in pain has been watched millions of times and shows the horrible consequences of rubbish entering our oceans.

NICK WHIGHAM and WIRES
9 min read
August 26, 2015 - 5:32AM

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.

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:

A Florida woman is in serious trouble after reportedly coming up with a drastic solution to stop her grandchildren from getting lice.

Angry about the children having hair lice, Pamela Vanorsdale believed a homeless man her daughter was dating was the source of the problem and tried to have him killed, reports the Daytona Beach News Journal.

Pamela Vanorsdale.
Pamela Vanorsdale.

The 50-year-old woman has been charged with criminal solicitation to commit murder after police said she tried to hire her former son-in-law to “pop” the proposed victim in the “head and chest”.

Police found out about the plot when her son-in-law, Dylan Loveless, went to police.

9:35am:

Germany has formally dropped an EU rule on Tuesday in order to welcome Syrian asylum seekers into the country, and many have taken to social media to share praise for the country’s leader.

Images of Angela Merkel with the phrase “we love you” in German, and “with love” in Arabic are being shared by grateful Syrians on Facebook and Twitter.

In a tweet posted by the Federal Office of Migration and Refugees in Germany, they announced it would suspend the Dublin Regulation — a 1990 rule forcing refugees to seek asylum in the nation they first arrive — in regards to Syrian refugees.

9:25am:

Treasurer Joe Hockey has hit back at critics who doubt his ability to deliver personal income tax cuts and bring the budget back to surplus by 2020.

Mr Hockey has promised to take personal income tax cuts to the next election, insisting he’ll pay for them the same way he delivered $5 billion of tax cuts for small business in his second budget.

“People said it wasn’t possible to do, you wouldn’t be able to pay for it, well we did,” he told ABC TV this morning.

“If you save money where you can and certainly don’t go on massive new spending binges in a range of different areas, then you can find the money to pay for the necessary reform to strengthen the Australian economy.”

-AAP

9:15am:

“I am ready to leave the love and kindness and goodness and patience that I mix with everything else that I am and become a cold blooded killer.”

It was those written words that led authorities to believe Christopher Duntsch, a once promising neurosurgeon, was botching operations on purpose to kill people.

Christopher Duntsch.
Christopher Duntsch.

Duntsch is charged with five counts of aggravated assault for allegedly mishandling spinal surgeries, and one count of injuring an elderly person, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Several people have been injured on his operating table including two who died from operation which aren’t normally dangerous.

At a court hearing this week, Mr Duntsch was denied bail.

9am:

As world markets tumbled, triggered by anxiety over the Chinese economy, officials in China were quick to control what their journalist reported of the stock market crash.

The premier newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party decided to turn a blind eye as there was no mention of the crash on the front page of the state newspaper which instead chose to report on economic development in Tibet.

Journalist were also informed not to use any alarming terms or do any in depth analysis.

Other newspapers and websites in China reported on the market turmoil, though often presenting China as an unlikely bystander in a wider global downturn, reports the New York Times.

8:45am:

An unsettling video showing a sea turtle having a plastic straw ripped from its nostril has gone viral and serves as a reminder of the horrible consequences of rubbish entering our oceans.

“This video shows why plastic trash is detrimental to marine life and why especially drinking straws are one of the most useless items made out of plastic, especially if they end up in our oceans” the video’s caption reads.

The researchers found a male Olive Ridley sea turtle during a recent trip to Costa Rica when they performed the impromptu operation to remove the straw.

“The turtle very likely ate the straw and regurgitated the straw where it ended up in the wrong passageway,” the researchers said.

The video posted to YouTube has been viewed over four million times.

8:30am:

Queensland police are looking for a man who sparked an emergency situation in Brisbane’s north but won’t confirm reports the threatening phone call they received was a hoax.

Police say they received a call at 2.30am on Wednesday from a man who claimed he had killed his parents and was threatening to harm himself and others.

An emergency situation was declared around the QUT university campus at Kelvin Grove and police spent hours doorknocking about 60 residents in a unit complex.

8:20am:

The Islamic State group has published images showing the destruction of the Baal Shamin temple in Syria’s Palmyra, after international condemnation of the act.

The series of images showed militants placing barrels and small containers, presumably containing explosives, into the temple, as well as similar containers placed on parts of its columns.

The images, which appeared to be screenshots from a video, also showed a large explosion apparently as the temple was blown up, and then a pile of rubble at its former location.

The temple was reportedly destroyed on Sunday and news of its demolition sparked international condemnation.

-AFP

8:10am:

Police in Peru picked up a rogue penguin wandering the streets on Saturday night. The flightless bird was spotted running dazed and confused through the streets before officers took him in.

The startled creature valiantly tried to defended himself from officers with a few pecks, reports Sky News.

According to local media, the penguin was left stranded after falling from a vehicle and narrowly avoided being bitten by a dog and run over by a taxi during his adventure.

8am:

It was supposed to be a lesson in Italian art, but instead this 12-year-old boy’s excursion to a local museum turned into a very costly lesson about life.

The boy was visiting The Face of Leonardo; Images of a Genius exhibition at the Huashan Creative Park in Taipei, Taiwan with his mother when he tripped over and punched a hole through a $A2.09 million piece of artwork.

As he regains his balance he looks up at the 350-year-old painting, freezes, then looks around at other people in the room.

Read more here.

7:50am:

A Sydney gunman fired a single shot through the window of a busy restaurant in Harris Park while 40 diners sat inside last night. Police say those in the restaurant where lucky to escape harm.

It’s believed whoever fired the shot was on foot, and a man wearing a blue tracksuit was seen running south on Wigram Street after the incident, police say.

Police are appealing for anyone who saw the man to come forward, in particular a woman who was nearly knocked to the ground by the man near the pedestrian crossing on Wigram Street.

7:40am:

A man arrested for jumping a wall at the White House has been fatally shot after authorities say he attacked a deputy sheriff at a suburban Philadelphia courthouse.

Chester County District Attorney Thomas Hogan said that 34-year-old Curtis Smith was arrested at the White House in March after he tried to scale the fence.

Officer slashed by Curtis Smith.
Officer slashed by Curtis Smith.

Mr Hogan says the victim pulled a knife and slashed a deputy sheriff at the Chester County Courthouse before another officer fatally shot him.

The Pennsylvania man was pronounced dead at a hospital. The slashed deputy was hospitalised in stable condition.

-With AP

7:25am:

The search for a missing three-year-old boy has resumed in northern Queensland.

The child, who is indigenous, was last seen playing with other children between 3.30pm and 4pm on Tuesday near the North Johnstone river area at the Innisfail Wharf.

Missing 3-year-old.
Missing 3-year-old.

He was wearing a green shirt with a monster truck logo. Police are searching the river and wharf area, as well as a nearby park.

7:10am:

A young teen has tried to document the reaction she gets when promoting herself as a feminist on hook-up app Tinder.

Laura Nowak put the simple message “I am a feminist” in her bio on her Tinder profile and posted a number of the subsequent interactions on an Instagram account called Feminist Tinder.

Laura Nowak.
Laura Nowak.

It may not come as a surprise, but some of the responses are rather unsavoury and openly attack the idea of feminism.

“I had been a casual user of Tinder for several months before putting ‘feminist’ in my bio I was really shocked at how many aggressive reactions I received and realised that this was definitely something I had to share, to highlight our culture’s misunderstanding of feminism,” she told the Independent.

At the time of writing her account has over 31,000 followers.

Feminist Tinder.
Feminist Tinder.
Feminist Tinder.
Feminist Tinder.

6:55am:

A safari guide has been mauled to death by a lion in the same national park in Zimbabwe where the famous Cecil lived.

Quinn Swales, 40, was a “qualified and very experienced” tour guide and was leading six clients when a male lion “tragically and fatally mauled” him, the national park he worked at said in a Facebook post.

“It suddenly turned and instantaneously charged and attacked Quinn who had continued to place himself between his guests and the animal,” the post said.

“Having been thrown to the ground, bitten in the shoulder and neck Quinn sadly died at the scene.”

Quinn Swales mauled by lion where Cecil was killed. Pic: Facebook/Quinn Swales
Quinn Swales mauled by lion where Cecil was killed. Pic: Facebook/Quinn Swales

“Only praise and admiration can be given to Quinn in the professional way he unflinchingly faced the charging lion, thus ensuring that he protected the clients,” said David Carson, General Manager of Camp Hwange.

Read more here.

6:45am:

Hundreds of residents were ordered to evacuate their homes at Sussex Inlet and St George’s Basin on Tuesday night, while eyes remain on a precarious dam that has begun eroding near Kiama.

Storm conditions are expected to ease in NSW’s Illawarra and south coast regions following days of heavy rain and floods but residents have been warned to remain vigilant.

Emergency crews said they have responded to 1,600 calls for help and undertaken more than 50 rescues, reports the ABC.

A resident who is trapped by flood waters. The creek crossing on the Mount Brandon Road.
A resident who is trapped by flood waters. The creek crossing on the Mount Brandon Road.

6:35am:

Make-up artist Ilana Kolihanov has found a way to impress her online followers and freak out her dog, all in one amazing transformation.

In a video posted to her YouTube account this month, the dedicated artist spends hours meticulously doing her makeup to look just like her blue-eyed Siberian husky. And the resemblance is freaky:

6:25am:

Australia has a moral obligation to join air strikes against Islamic State in Syria, former Labor foreign minister Bob Carr says.

The federal government is considering a request from the US to extend air operations to Syria and Mr Carr believes the humanitarian case would justify the move.

Former Senator Bob Carr before.
Former Senator Bob Carr before.

“The West has really got a moral obligation to act where it can be argued there’s a chance of saving civilian populations from the mass atrocity crimes that seem to follow very quickly when ISIS takes control of territory,” Mr Carr told the ABC this morning.

His comments come amid reports that the Abbott government pushed the US to ask Australia to expand its air strikes.

-AAP

6:15am:

A dead teenage girl woke up screaming in her coffin a day after she was buried.

The day after 16-year-old Neysis Perez’s funeral, her husband Rudy Gonzales was visiting her grave at the La Entrada General Cemetery when he heard muffled screams.

“As I put my hand on her grave I could hear noises inside. I heard banging, then I heard her voice. She was screaming for help. It had already been a day since we buried her. I couldn’t believe it. I was ecstatic, full of hope,” he told local media.

The dramatic moment.
The dramatic moment.

Startling footage has emerged showing desperate family members smashing through the girl’s tomb in western Honduras where she was heard banging and yelling.

Relatives claimed they found the coffin’s glass viewing window smashed and the teen’s fingertips bruised.

She was rushed to hospital where she later died.

Read more here.

6am:

Pawel Fajdek woke up after a celebratory night on the town and was missing one thing.

The champion hammer thrower won gold at the World Athletics Championships in Beijing, but the next morning he was missing his prized gold medal.

According to Chinese media outlet Tencent, the Polish athlete had willingly handed it over as payment for a taxi ride during a drunken stupor.

However he has denied the claims and said the taxi driver “probably drove off with the medal unknowingly.”

The worried 26-year-old called police in the morning who helped track down the driver and aided in recovering the gold medal for him.

Fajdek has taken to his Facebook page calling reports that he drunkenly used it as payment; “stupid rumours.”

“They wouldn’t describe their own citizen as guilty because it’s easier to blame it on the other side,” he wrote.

According to reports, Polish journalists in Beijing covering the event confirmed they had seen the athlete who had “drunk a lot in the celebration party”.

Pawel Fajdek.
Pawel Fajdek.
The gold.
The gold.
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Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/national/rush-hour/rush-hour-the-stories-you-need-to-know-today/news-story/4170c6f242befe10b35810cac2a19555