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7.35am

Shorten defends Newstart payments increase

Bill Shorten denies Labor’s proposed increase of Newstart payments will encourage people to stay on the dole, saying the party’s priority will still be to get people into a job.

Labor will review the Newstart allowance ahead of the party’s national conference in December, with the federal opposition leader saying payments are “too low”.

“We don’t know what the number we’ll come up with ... at the end of the review, but I’m not going stand here and say that someone on $260 a week is doing it easy, they are not,” he told the Nine Network on Wednesday.

Bill Shorten says Labor’s focus is on creating jobs. Picture: AAP

Bill Shorten says Labor’s focus is on creating jobs. Picture: AAPSource:AAP

Mr Shorten said Labor’s primary concern would still be “to make sure people find a job... and make sure that we encourage people to work”.

“But at the same time I’m not going to start kicking a person who is down in the head, am I? That’s what we do when we say ‘bad luck’,” he said.

7.05am

Crazy reason behind Antarctica stabbing

A scientist accused of attempted murder in Antarctica stabbed his colleague because “he was fed up with the man telling him the endings of books,” it has been claimed.

Scientific engineer Sergey Savitsky, 55, became enraged and stabbed welder Oleg Beloguzov, 52, with a kitchen knife.

Victim Oleg Beloguzov reportedly kept spoiling the endings of books. Picture: The Sun

Victim Oleg Beloguzov reportedly kept spoiling the endings of books. Picture: The SunSource:The Sun

It is believed to be the first time a man has been charged with attempted murder in Antarctica.

The men had previously spent four harsh years at Russia’s isolated Bellingshausen station King George Island, part of the South Shetland island group.

Russian investigators are probing a version of events in which both men became avid readers to pass the lonely hours in the remote facility.

Sergey Savitsky is accused of stabbing his colleague in Antarctica after he kept ruining the endings of books. Picture: The Sun

Sergey Savitsky is accused of stabbing his colleague in Antarctica after he kept ruining the endings of books. Picture: The SunSource:Supplied

But Mr Savitsky had become enraged that Mr Beloguzov “kept telling his colleague the endings of books before he read them”.

The wounded man was evacuated to Chile with a knife injury to the chest.

— The Sun, read more

6.35am

Killer dad sentence due over omelette row

A Melbourne father who killed his son after an argument about a burnt omelette will find out how long he will spend behind bars for the crime.

Peter John Smith pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court in August to fatally shooting his son Andrew Thomas Smith.

The pair fought after Smith’s son tossed a burnt omelette on the ground, upsetting the older man who thought the dog might get sick.

The pair wrestled on the ground before Smith, aged in his 70s, grabbed a shotgun and fired twice at his son’s chest while he was lying in bed.

He is due to be sentenced for the murder, which happened a week before Christmas in 2017, later today.

— AAP

6.00am

Ghost lover getting hitched to ‘Aussie’

THEY say love knows no boundaries and that certainly seems to be the case with Amethyst Realm — who finally met her dream “man” right here in Australia.

The Englishwoman from Bristol in the country’s southwest made global headlines when she revealed she had cheated on her fiance by having sex with a ghost — and went on to say she had 15 ghost lovers.

Now, she has now revealed she has found true love and is planning to marry a poltergeist.

And the 30-year-old bride-to-be reckons they have already consummated their relationship on the flight back from a working trip to Australia, where they supposedly met.

Amethyst Realm met her dream phantom hubby in Australia. Picture: The Sun

Amethyst Realm met her dream phantom hubby in Australia. Picture: The SunSource:Supplied

“I’d not had a phantom fling for a while and as I was away on business, starting a new relationship was the last thing on my mind,” she told The Sun.

“Then one day, while I was walking through the bush, enjoying nature, I suddenly felt this incredible energy. A new lover had arrived.”

When it was time to return home, she was heartbroken, as she thought she would have to leave her new love.

She says: “From experience, I knew spirits tend to stay in one place, but something amazing happened.”

On the plane, as she fastened her seatbelt, she felt the presence of her lover. She couldn’t believe it.

I Gave Up Men to Have Sex With Ghosts

“I was happy and excited — so excited that we had to do something about it. So we headed to the plane loo and, well, I am now a member of the Mile High Club.”

Nine months after that raunchy meeting, her ghostly lover popped the question last weekend

Ms Realm said she now wants a baby with her spook hubby-to-be.

She admits the idea “sounds crazy” but adds: “I looked into it and I don’t think it’s totally out of the question.”

— with The Sun , read more

5.35am

Police officer injured after wild car chase in Queensland

A quick-thinking cop has been injured while stopping a trio from stealing a car after a wild police chase in north Queensland.

The chase began when a stolen Mazda sped off after police tried to pull it over in Townsville at 2pm on Tuesday.

The car was driven over police road spikes, puncturing two tyres, before it was steered onto the wrong side of Bundock Rd.

The three occupants then allegedly pulled a woman out of her car and used her vehicle to ram a police car head on.

A police officer jumped into the driver’s seat of the stolen car and stopped the trio, injuring his lower leg. The three were assisting detectives with inquiries.

— AAP