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RUSH HOUR: The stories you need to know today

A FATAL stuff up by a waiter at a Spanish bar has left one man dead and the owner in ruin. And everyone else can’t believe how such a disastrous mistake could be made.

NICK WHIGHAM and WIRES
11 min read
June 17, 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.

10:00am:

That’s it for this morning’s #RUSHHOUR blog. Stay up to date with the rest of today’s headlines at news.com.au.

9:50am: Woolworths CEO quits as 1,200 jobs to be cut

Woolworths CEO Grant O'Brien is on the way out.
Woolworths CEO Grant O'Brien is on the way out.

Woolworths has announced 1,200 job cuts as chief executive Grant O’Brien steps down amid disappointing sales performance.

In a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange, Woolworths announced a further 800 job cuts in addition to 400 announced last month.

“We have identified additional opportunities to improve efficiency and remove outdated processes,” it said. The 1200 job cuts will affect “support functions, supply chain and non-customer facing store positions”.

The company is on a $500 million cost-cutting drive and expects to pay out $40-$50 million in redundancies this financial year.

Woolworths has launched a global search for a replacement but Mr O’Brien will remain in the role until his successor is appointed.

9:40am: Champion runner and Gold Coast mayor, Ron Clarke dead at 78

Photos from early sixties of running with Ron Clarke pictured on the far left.
Photos from early sixties of running with Ron Clarke pictured on the far left.

World champion runner and former Gold Coast mayor Ron Clarke has died at the age of 78.

The Gold Coast City Council confirmed Mr Clarke’s passing on the Gold coast early on Wednesday.

The man who rose to become one of Australia’s greatest middle and distance runners had recently been in poor health.

Clarke (pictured above on the far left) gained prominence on the athletics track in the 1950s and 1960s and officially set 17 world records.

After his athletics career ended, he served two terms as the Gold Coast mayor from 2004, before making an unsuccessful tilt at state politics.

9:30am: Will the Blues target Billy Slater’s shoulder?

Billy Slater and Cam Smith. The Queensland State of Origin side training at the MCG ahead of tonight’s game against New South Wales.
Billy Slater and Cam Smith. The Queensland State of Origin side training at the MCG ahead of tonight’s game against New South Wales.

Claims by NSW captain Paul Gallen that Billy Slater won’t be targeted in State of Origin II appear to have been taken with a grain of salt by Queensland skipper Cameron Smith.

Maroons leader Smith could not rule out the possibility of the Blues seeking some serious payback for Slater at the MCG tonight.

And he admitted there was nothing they could do to protect the veteran fullback.

Slater is expected to wear a target on his recovering shoulder that may undergo season-ending surgery as early as Thursday after coming under fire for perceived niggling tactics in Origin I. Gallen reckoned injuring Slater was the last thing on their minds as they looked to square the series. But it seems Smith needed a bit more convincing.

9:15am: Labor may not support stripping of citizenship bill

Shadow Attorney General Mark Dreyfus.
Shadow Attorney General Mark Dreyfus.

Federal Labor has signalled it may not support government plans to give the immigration minister powers to strip terror suspects of their citizenship.

“It is unthinkable that this should be allowed to be determined by ministerial whim,” shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus told reporters in Canberra this morning. The controversial legislation will be presented to parliament before the end of next week.

In an interview with Sky News, Malcolm Turnbull also indicated he does not support any sweeping changes and stressed any legislation has to be “within the rules” of the constitution.

9:05am: Nude photos of Australian women and girls shared on US website

Nude, risque and revealing photos of more than 400 Adelaide women and teenagers — some allegedly under the age of consent — are being shared online, without permission, by a US website.

Many of the photos have been taken from private Facebook accounts and are available for anyone to download without their permission.

On the site, the user who posted the photos promises access to Adelaide “chicks” in various states of undress, telling victims “you cannot do anything to stop us”.

But a moderator of the site says it is exempt from SA law because it is based in the US, and that women shown should address their concerns to those who took the photos.

“First let’s be clear: (this site) is hosted in the United States, not Australia,” the administrator said.

Read more at The Advertiser.

8:50am: Married At First Sight contestant files restraining order on partner

It seems Australia’s Married At First Sight isn’t the only version of the reality show with unhappy couples jumping ship.

Over in the US, one married pair has called it quits just one week after the season 2 finale.

Cast member Ryan De Nino revealed that his bride, Jessica Castro, has since filed a restraining order against him

The 30-year-old reality TV contestant claims the social experiment went horribly wrong after De Nino, 29, threatened to kill her and her family.

“I will break you into f*cking pieces,” De Nino said, according to a Queens Family Court petition filed Friday. “I will break your dad into pieces. I will make your whole family disappear — and your f*cking dog-ass sister’s boyfriend.”

Read more here.

8:40am: UK woman jailed after pretending to have abortion in order to gift baby

A British woman who tricked her husband into thinking she had an abortion so she could give her baby to a homosexual friend has been jailed for three years.

It came to light that the supposed surrogate mother, a lawyer called Clare Green, had been invented by the two accused, who set up a fake Facebook account in that name, reports the BBC.

The pair got away with it for three years and the biological father only learned of the deceitful plot after becoming suspicious when told the baby was a “spitting image” of him.

The 35-year-old gay man who was bringing up the child as his own has also been jailed for three years.

“In all respects this was an elaborate and cynical scheme,” said the judge during sentencing.

8:25am: Bakery inundated with cake requests after photo goes viral

A small London bakery has had to release a statement urging people to stop requesting cakes. The bakery says they are unable to cope with the huge demand of requests they have received after a picture of a lego wedding cake — complete with edible lego blocks — went viral on social media.

“My talented father does it again with a special creation for my cousin’s wedding, though I did make the edible Lego brick,” the caption of the photo reads.

The original post was uploaded earlier in the month and has since received over 144,000 ‘likes’ and over 70,000 shares which led to the massive influx of requests.

8:15am: Sydney raid finds $2 million worth of ice

Sydney man will face court after drug raid.
Sydney man will face court after drug raid.

A man will face a Sydney court after police raided an inner-city home and found more than $2 million worth of the drug ice.

Police executed a search warrant at a home in Glebe on Tuesday afternoon and found a large amount of drugs believed to be methamphetamine and $25,000 cash.

A 59-year-old man at the home was arrested and searched, with police allegedly finding $7000 on him.

8:05am: Eye rolling emoji is likely coming to your smartphone

People seem pretty happy about it.
People seem pretty happy about it.

The long awaited “eye rolling” emoji could be coming to your smartphone. According to Time magazine the non-profit group, Unicode Consortium that oversees the communications standard emojis rely upon have approved the “Face With Rolling Eyes” emoji to be added to that standard.

Twitter has previously been filled with people complaining about the lack of an eye rolling emoji so the news is likely to excite many.

7:50am: Attackers foiled by quick thinking

CCTV footage has captured the quick thinking of a woman who was approached by a wannabe thief. After jumping of the back of a passing motorbike the man races towards the woman with the apparent intention of pinching her bag.

The woman is about to enter her fenced-off garage and simply throws her belongings over the fence. With nothing left for him, the defeated attacker promptly runs away.

Genius.

7:40am: Woman hit and killed by train in Melbourne

A woman died when she was hit by a train in Melbourne this morning.

The woman was hit at a pedestrian crossing, with police investigating the circumstances, and train services on the Hurstbridge line were halted about 6am.

Trains have been suspended between Diamond Creek and Eltham, and buses are running between Diamond Creek and Greensborough to connect with train services.

7:30am: Chris Evans to replace Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear

Former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson.
Former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson.
Chris Evans will take the wheel.
Chris Evans will take the wheel.

The BBC has announced that its hit TV show ‘Top Gear’ will return to the airwaves with a new host replacing scandal-tainted Jeremy Clarkson.

The broadcaster says radio and TV personality Chris Evans has signed a three-year deal to lead a new line-up for the show, which has won a huge following with its mix of car tips, driving stunts and jokey banter.

Evans said on Tuesday he was thrilled to be hosting “my favourite program of all time.”

“I promise I will do everything I possibly can to respect what has gone on before and take the show forward,” he added.

7:20am: Pakistani 10-year-old charged with extramarital affair

A tribal court in southern Pakistan has convicted a 10-year-old boy of having an affair with a married woman in her late 30s and ordered his family to pay a fine of $A9000, police say.

The incident occurred on Monday in the remote village of Bakhrani in Sindh province, 510 kilometres north of Karachi. “The 10-year-old was caught having an extramarital affair with a lady from another tribe, which created bad blood between the two tribes,” a local police official requesting anonymity told AFP on Tuesday.

Under Pakistan’s penal code, an adult male having sex with a female child is considered to have committed statutory rape, but a woman having sex with a boy does not come under the law.

However the court’s decision is being investigated.

7:10am: Footage emerges of Perth boy escaping abductor in own backyard

CCTV footage has emerged showing the horrifying moment an 8-year-old Perth boy ran down the street to safety after fending off a man who attempted to snatch him from his own backyard.

The attack occurred at the Shelley home early on Monday morning when a man reportedly jumped the fence, covered the boy’s mouth and dragged him away.

The security video footage taken from a neighbour’s house shows the distressed looking boy running down the street early in the morning.

The video emerged on Tuesday as police continued their investigation into the attempted abduction.

Witness Charmaine White said she saw the boy running along the road, repeatedly looking behind him. When she followed him, she found him curled up on a medium strip.

“He said a man tried to take me from my backyard,” she told Seven.

“I said ‘Did you try to scream?’ and he said I couldn’t because the man had his hand really firmly over my mouth.”

6:55am: Adorable new species of octopus to be named

A new species of octopus has been discovered and it is so cute that scientists are thinking of calling it adorabilis. The orange coloured sea creature has drawn comparison to pokemon characters but has yet to be officially named.

Specimens of this new octopus have been collected since 1990, but until now they have not yet been scientifically described.

“As someone that’s describing the species you get to pick what the specific name is,” Stephanie Bush from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

“One of the thoughts I had was making it Opisthoteuthis Adorabilis — because they’re really cute.”

6:45am: Police urge Victorians not to worry amid concerns over superbug

A superbug has been found in the systems of 18 people who died in Victoria, but people are being told not to worry about using hospitals.

Since 2012, 57 Victorians have been found with a Klebsiella Pneumoniae Carbapenemase infection or to be carrying the bacteria without symptoms of illness.

Eighteen people have died with KPC in their systems but authorities do not believe it was the sole cause of the deaths. “I do want to assure all Victorians that there is not a broad public health risk in respect of this bacteria,” Health Minister Jill Hennessy said.

“However we are taking seriously the need to make sure we improve surveillance (and) infection control.”

Read more about the bug at the Sun Herald.

6:35am: Socceroos hold on to win important World Cup qualifier

In one of the most extraordinary matches they will ever play, the Aussies resolutely maintained composure amid a cauldron of noise, emotion and non-stop attack to prevail 2-1 against an enthusiastic opposition playing the game of their lives.

When Kyrgyzstan captain Azamat Baimatov scored deep into stoppage time, the home team and crowd of 18,000 celebrated as if they had won the World Cup.

Players hugged, a spectator ran onto the field waving a national flag before being dragged away by police, and flares went off in the open stand.

The Socceroos then held on manfully for an excruciating last few minutes before Qatar referee Mohammed Khamis mercifully blew full-time.

“We’re going to have to go to places throughout Asia where that sort of atmosphere is just commonplace. It’s not easy qualifying through this process and to get a win away, so I’m pleased,” said Australian coach, Ange Postecoglou.

6:25am: Chris Lane’s killer gets life without parole

Chancey Luna was convicted of first-degree murder.
Chancey Luna was convicted of first-degree murder.
Chris Lane wears his baseball equipment, in Australia.
Chris Lane wears his baseball equipment, in Australia.

Chancey Luna, the teenager who shot Australian baseball player Chris Lane dead in Oklahoma, has shown no emotion after a judge sentenced him to life without the possibility of parole.

Mr Luna was 16 at the time of the 2013 shooting and the court heard he was a member of the infamous Crips street gang.

On the back of his orange prison jumpsuit in court on Tuesday was “Crips for Life” written in black pen.

Mr Lane, 22, from Melbourne, was jogging along a Duncan, Oklahoma street when he was shot in the back by Mr Luna, who was riding in a friend’s car.

“Sixteen is a very, very young age, but we are also talking about an innocent man not much older,” Judge Ken Graham told the killer. At Mr Luna’s April trial in Duncan, Oklahoma, a jury only took an hour to find the now 18-year-old guilty of first degree murder. His lawyers have filed an appeal but it will take about two years before it will be heard.

6:10am: Donald Trump enters US presidential race

mogul and reality-television star Donald Trump said he will seek the Republican nomination for president. He’s the 12th high-profile Republican to enter the 2016 race, with more to come in the weeks ahead.

“All of my life, I have heard, a truly successful person, a really successful person, and even a modestly successful person, cannot run for public office, just can’t happen,” Trump said. “Yet that’s the kind of mindset you need to make this country great again.

“So, ladies and gentlemen, I am officially running for president of the United States, and we are going to make our country great again.”

But naturally, the internet isn’t taking his presidential ambitions very seriously.

6:00am: Man dies after accidentally being served detergent

A 50-year-old man has died after a waiter accidentally served him a glass of detergent instead of white wine. Andres Lorente attended an unnamed cafe-bar in Benircarlo, Spain on Sunday afternoon where the fatal mix-up took place.

The industrial detergent had reportedly been placed in an empty wine bottle and put in the fridge, reports Sky 105.

He was soon rushed to hospital in nearby Vinaros but died from internal burns to his windpipe, throat and stomach.

A source close to the investigation told the media: “Everything at the moment is pointing towards a tragedy caused by negligence rather than ill-intent.”

Jose Antonio Martin, director of the gastroenterology department at Castellon General Hospital, said that ingesting even a small amount of such a concentrated liquid could be lethal. “It starts burning immediately,” he told El Periodico Mediterraneo. “If it is potent it can burn and puncture the oesophagus and stomach.”

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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/a6719f1d9636e210741d94dc5c364eb2