RUSH HOUR: The stories you need to know today
A PASSENGER waiting at an airport captured dramatic footage on his smartphone of the moment a Delta Airlines plane was struck by lightning.
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.
9.55am
If you thought religion was over, you’d be right. Religious classes have been replaced by relationship lessons in Victorian schools.
The “respectful relationships” education will be included in the curriculum from 2016 for prep to year 10 students, and will include global culture, ethics, traditions and family violence lessons.
“Teaching healthy, respectful relationships is key to preventing violence. We’re including it in the curriculum so that every Victorian school teaches students these important skills and lessons,” said Family Violence Prevention Minister Fiona Richardson.
- AAP
9.45am
Sickening details emerge in machete murder of Job Corps teen found buried in grave near campus http://t.co/9ei3NCRNLB pic.twitter.com/r3ec3iqaSu
Three students have confessed to luring a 17-year-old to the woods, hacking him with a machete and forcing him to lie in a shallow grave, police said.
A fourth student, Desiray Strickland, 18, has been charged with taking part in the brutal June slaying of Jose Amaya Guardado in Florida
Strickland and the alleged ringleader, Kaheem Arbelo, 20, had sex in the woods after Guardado was buried, according to an arrest document seen by the The Miami Herald.
9.35am
Sex workers in Milan have been ordered to wear high-visibility vests so that motorists can see them at night.
Sex Workers Told To Wear High Visibility Jackets At Night https://t.co/MG5MboY9uv pic.twitter.com/dtgK32HZ9Y
Authorities in Spino d’Adda, a town south of Milan said prostitutes could be fined up to 500 euros if they flouted the new rule, Italian newspaper Il Messagero reported.
Deputy mayor Luciano Sinigaglia said the street workers should be treated the same as road workers and should have to wear clothes that make them more visible for their own safety.
9.25am
An all-ages festival that ended in drunken chaos on Australia’s snow fields has been dubbed “the loosest party ever”.
An intoxicated 13-year-old was found in a public toilet at the Snowtunes music event in Jindabyne, while an 18-year-old seen drinking from a hip flask vomited in front of inspectors from the Office of Liquor, Gaming & Racing (OLGR).
Snowtunes organisers have hit back at today's police accusations http://t.co/o1vX1k4LAL pic.twitter.com/n35v4thUD0
Another man who had a broken wrist and could hardly stand told officials he had “drunk through the pain”, an extraordinary OLGR press release revealed.
The details published on inthemix.com said one man was seen urinating in full view of the mosh pit while another shouted, “F*** your sniffer dogs! People just want to get high and have fun!”
Snowtunes organisers said “responsible service of alcohol is always our highest priority.”
9.15am
A giant kangaroo has been spotted lurking outside a home in Brisbane.
The six-foot creature spent several days “hanging around the street”, families told Springfield Gazette, but seemed very calm.
Imagine this big guy at your front door! Well, that's what happened to some Brisbane residents this week. http://bit.ly/1Jjweta
One woman said the massive roo even approached her car.
RSPCA spokesman Michael Beatty said: “We think he got pushed out from his mob and chased by a dog. He probably got dishevelled and ended up in that street.”
9.05am
A Spanish woman has been caught on camera beating an animal rights activist with a duck at one of the country’s most controversial festivals.
The annual “duck chase” takes place in the Catalonian seaside town of Roses every August, when waterfowl are thrown into the Mediterranean and then caught and brought back to shore by swimmers.
The footage shows a young woman in a white bathing suit attack the cameraman with a duck, holding it by the legs as she repeatedly lashes him with it.
8.55am
A Hollywood-style funeral held for a purported local crime boss to the theme tune from The Godfather has horrified onlookers in Rome.
The extravagant event boasted a gilded, horse-drawn carriage and red rose petals tossed from a helicopter on the crowd outside the church.
Hundreds of tearful mourners paid their final respects to Vittorio Casamonica, 65, at the church on the outskirts of Rome. Police identified him as a leader of the Casamonica clan but said he was “on the margins” of organised crime and hadn’t emerged as a suspect in recent mafia investigations.
“You conquered Rome, now you’ll conquer paradise,” read a banner affixed to the entrance of the church.
Mayor Ignazio Marino demanded to know how such a scene could have taken place and tweeted that it was “intolerable that funerals are used by the living to send mafia messages.”
- AP
8.45am
The lavish spending of former Health Service Union boss Kathy Jackson at members’ expense has been exposed.
The union, whose members are among the lowest paid in the country, paid for Jackson’s luxury lifestyle for years, the Federal Court found.
Jackson was paid $170,000 a year at one time as national secretary. Her most extravagant HSU credit card splurges included a $2200 dinner at exclusive Melbourne eatery The Press Club, and a $3800 painting by artist Charles Blackman.
Groceries — including fresh oysters and a whole baby snapper — alcohol, entertainment and retail items were also skimmed with union plastic. Then there were “vast wads” of unaccounted cash, withdrawn from a union cheque account, that helped pay off Jackson’s mortgage. That’s separate to the slush fund which helped Jackson pay her ex-husband during their divorce.
Jackson was heralded as a “heroic” whistleblower by Tony Abbott while he led the federal opposition in 2012.
- AAP
8.35am
Graphic details of Silvio Berlusconi's infamous bunga-bunga parties have been laid bare in a new book.
The former Italian prime minister enjoyed watching women kiss a statue of a penis and sing his name, according to an exerpt published in The Independent.
The women would grope is genitals while singing “Thank Goodness for Silvio”, the author claimed, with the 78-year-old luring many of them to the events with promises of jobs as weather girls at one of his news outlets.
8.25am
Police have slammed social media rumours about a missing Sunshine Coast teenager having an older lover as they search for the missing student.
Jayde Kendall, 16, was last seen leaving her high school in Gatton on Friday afternoon, and on Wednesday a personal item of hers was found more than 40 kilometres away near the Warrego Highway.
Detective Inspector Dave Isherwood told the Sunshine Coast Daily she left school about 3.15 on Friday afternoon and got into a car with a male who had given “a plausible version of events as to what’s occurred.”
“There is no suggestion whatsoever that this girl is promiscuous, that this girl is anything but a decent kid who’s tried to have a go in life,” he added.
8.15am
I got up close to the massive fish die-off in #Tianjin, and now plan to never do anything like that again. #China pic.twitter.com/N1iQWoFHNp
Extraordinary images from Tianjin have revealed piles of dead fish washed up after the explosion.
Locals are concerned that dangerous chemicals from the blast in the Chinese port city have polluted the water.
Tianjin Environmental Monitoring Center has launched an investigation into the cause, People’s Daily reported, enlisting experts from the local fishing and aquatic departments.
Director Deng Xiaowen told a press conference that no toxic levels of cyanide have been detected in water samples taken from a Tianjin river where the fish were found.
Official: dead fish in #Tianjin river may be induced by eutrophication. Cause yet to determine http://t.co/JCycOklj54 pic.twitter.com/9fKeYxuoyf
8.05am
Federal politicians are still failing to certify their expense claims despite repeated requests from bureaucrats, according to reports.
Labor senator Stephen Conroy only recently signed certification forms for expenses dating back to 2011, while independent MP Bob Katter still has outstanding paperwork from four years ago, the ABC reports.
MPs are required to sign a form every six months certifying their expense claims but there’s no punishment for the more than 100 MPs the ABC found had failed to do so at least once.
- AAP
7.55am
A cure for obesity could be just around the corner after scientists at Harvard discovered that a tiny change to DNA can help us shed the kilos.
The researchers discovered a new pathway that controls human metabolism, and a simple injection could make our bodies burn up fat instead of storing it.
INJECTION -- TO CURE OBESITY? http://t.co/r2cOI5Jy9s
Repression of the IRX3 gene in mice led to dramatic changes in whole-body energy balance, resulting in a reduction of body weight and all major fat stores, and complete resistance to a high-fat diet, Science Daily reported. The alteration was also found to work on human cells, “providing new hope for a cure against obesity,” scientists said.
7.45am
South Korea fired dozens of shells at North Korea after claiming the North lobbed a single rocket at a South Korean town broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda. The North denied it fired any shots near the world’s most heavily armed border and warned of retaliation for what it called a serious provocation.
Officials in Seoul said the North fired the rocket across the Demilitarized Zone to back up an earlier threat to attack South Korean border loudspeakers that, after a lull of 11 years, have started broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda.
But the Supreme Headquarters of the Korean People’s Army issued a statement later Thursday denying it had launched any shots at the South.
“Using the pretext that our forces fired one shell to the south, which is not true, it made reckless moves by firing 36 shells at our military posts,” said the statement, published in Korean by the North’s state media. It said the shells landed near four military posts, but caused no injuries.
“This reckless shelling incident is a serious military provocation to our sacred territory and military posts which is intolerable,” it said.
- AP
7.35am
A 70-year-old man who fell while walking the woods near his western New York home survived a week outdoors by drinking rain water.
Police say Donald Farrell was following two deer off a trail when he lost his footing and fell in Avon, about 100 kilometres east of Buffalo.
Farrell told officers who interviewed him that he was unable to get back up. He says he lay there for days and survived by drinking rainwater off leaves.
Police say Farrell was eventually found the morning of Auguest 16, seven days after his fall, when a cousin who was searching for him heard his cries for help.
Farrell remains at a Rochester hospital where he is said to be in a satisfactory condition.
- AP
7.25am
Two more women have joined the list of dozens who have accused disgraced TV star Bill Cosby of sexual assault in the 1970s, bringing to around 50 the number of women who claim abuse at the hands of The Cosby Show star. A former air stewardess, who did not give her real name, fought back tears to say Cosby drugged and assaulted her after taking her out for dinner.
They met on an American Airlines flight from New York to Los Angeles when she asked Cosby for an autograph. Cosby insisted she drink sake, the woman told a news conference in New York, then she slipped into a “trancelike state” similar to “being under anaesthesia.” She recalled finding herself in Cosby’s hotel room.
“I could barely stand up and I was either going to pass out or get very sick,” she said. “He made me kneel down. I don’t want to repeat what happened next.”
She said she next remembers vomiting in his Rolls Royce. “I apologised and the driver said I wasn’t the first,” said the woman, who used the pseudonym Elizabeth.
Charlotte Fox said she was working as an extra on a film set when she met Cosby, who invited her out for the evening as part of a group that ended up at the Playboy Mansion.
“We ate and drank. I became ill,” she said, adding that she remembered being in bed naked.
“I was incapacitated and couldn’t say no. He engaged in sexual activity with me. It was not consensual. I was afraid to call out. He left,” she said.
Attorney Gloria Allred is representing the women and other alleged victims.
Cosby has previously denied all such allegations.
- AFP
7.15am
A Brooklyn woman accidentally left $35,000 worth of jewellry in a taxi when she was moving to a new apartment, the New York Post reports.
Artist Mariko Spigner, 42, who had been couch surfing, was moving most of her belongings from a friend’s apartment in a cab.
She realised just after the cab took off that she had left one bag in it, she said, by which time the taxi was rolling out of sight.
“I screamed and screamed in the middle of the street, but it was too late,” said Spigner.
Her lost jewellry box included her engagement ring, which she said was worth $15,000, a $2,000 wedding ring and other valuable pieces.
7.05am
A couple sick of enduring their friends’ endless baby pictures on Facebook have hit back with their own soft-focus photoshoot of their adorable new arrival.
But in this case, the cute bundle of joy was Abby Lee and Matt Kay’s new dog, Humphry. “Aren’t they a gorgeous little family?” wrote photographer Elisha alongside the sentimental snaps of the NSW couple with their groodle — a golden retriever crossed with a poodle.
Posted by Elisha Minnette Photography on Wednesday, 19 August 2015
Posted by Elisha Minnette Photography on Wednesday, 19 August 2015
“Making people smile and have a laugh was our intention for these images I posted yesterday of the ‘fake newborn shoot with a puppy’ and after reading a lot of comments I feel we achieved that,” read the post on Elisha Minette Photography’s Facebook page. “Thank you for all the likes, comments & shares!
Posted by Elisha Minnette Photography on Wednesday, 19 August 2015
“I’m so happy that at least 99% of you people have the same sense of humour as we do. As for the other 1%, lighten up a little!!”
6.55am
Brazil is engulfed in corruption scandal, with support for president Dilma Rousseff falling to single-digit figures in recent polls, largely because of her apparent failure to deal with the heated situation.
The chief prosecutor has asked the Supreme Court for a green light to charge the speaker of the country’s lower house with receiving at least $5 million in bribes.
Prosecutor General Rodrigo Janot alleges that Eduardo Cunha, president of the Chamber of Deputies, received payoffs relating to contracts to build two survey vessels for state oil giant Petrobas.
The news comes as the country’s former president Collor was charged over corruption relating to Petrobas. Rousseff’s supporters held rallies yesterday opposing calls for her impeachment.
6.45am
A woman has revealed that she sends letters to mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik and is attracted to the killer.
“Victoria”, who didn’t want to reveal her real name, told The Local she had sent 150 letters to the man responsible for the Norway shootings and “really wouldn’t want to live a life without him”. The Swedish woman in her 20s has also sent him gifts, including a dark blue tie he occasionally wore at his trial.
6.35am
A gigantic “fire whirl” has been filmed above Idaho’s Soda Fire, shooting flames 100ft into the air and dropping hot ash on firefighters’ helmets.
The remarkable footage was captured late last week during the region’s ongoing wildfires, which have caused widespread damage to more than 280,000 acres.
Hundreds of firefighters have been battling what was described as a “firenado”.
Dozens of wild horses have perished in the fires, a result of unusually high temperatures and dry conditions.
6.25am
Militants in Syria fired several rockets into northern Israel on Thursday afternoon, prompting Israeli retaliatory fire, the military said — the first time since the 1973 Mideast war that rockets from Syrian territory have slammed into Israel.
A total of four rockets exploded in an open field in the northern Galilee, where sirens warned residents of the incoming projectiles. The rockets sparked small fires but caused no injuries.
- AP
6.15am
An Instagram account parodying Gen Y has become an online sensation, taking aim at millenials’ obsession with looking good on social media.
The Millenials of New York account is a play on the popular Humans of New York project, showing hipster young people posing with hilarious captions. It was set up by Alec MacDonald and Connor Toole of Elite Daily, and has more than 10,000 followers.
A typical caption reads: “My friends keep telling me that I should, like, do a pomegranate cleanse when I feel the pressure building, but why would I do that when Law and Order: SVU is always playing?”
6.05am
July was the hottest month across the world since records began, scientists have reported.
The average temperature globally was 0.81C above the 20th century average, said meteorologists from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
As July is the warmest month for the year worldwide, this was the all-time highest monthly temperature in the 1880-2015 record, at 16.61°C, surpassing the previous record set in 1998.
5.55am:
A passenger captured dramatic footage on his smartphone of the moment a Delta Airlines plane was struck by lightning.
Jack Perkins was filming a fierce electrical storm at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia when the 737 was hit.
His plane had been delayed due to the bad weather and he had just wanted to send his wife a video to show her why he was late, the BBC reported. He didn’t even realised what he’d captured until he watched it back.
There were around 111 passengers and six crew members on the flight at the time of the strike, Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant told AJC.com. No one was injured.
Inside feud that brought Sydney to a halt
Five months of transport disruptions and chaotic commutes were brought to an abrupt halt this week after a fiery fight between the unions and the government.
Driver charged over meat cleaver incident
A man has been charged after reports a driver allegedly wielded a meat cleaver at other drivers on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Commuters warned of further travel chaos
Commuters are being urged to brace for another day of cancellations and delays as the rail union and the NSW government take their fight to court.