Wednesday afternoon's news in under 5 minutes.

We’ve rounded up all the latest stories from Australia and around the world – so you don’t have to go searching.

1. ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ‘seriously wounded’ in air strike.

Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been seriously wounded in an air strike in western Iraq, the Guardian reports.

A source with connections to the terror group told the newspaper Baghdadi was seriously injured in March during a US-led coalition attack.

The source says his injuries were initially life-threatening, but he has made a slow recovery, though has not resumed day-to-day control of the group.

Following the strike, Islamic State leaders held an urgent meeting and prepared to name a new leader in the belief Baghdadi’s injuries were fatal.

2. Petition to can Nine’s new reality show Married at First Sight gains momentum.

An online petition calling for the axing of the yet-to-be-aired reality show Married at First Sight has gathered thousands of signatures.

The series, set to air soon on the Nine Network, is being advertised as a social experiment in which four couples matched by personality experts meet for the first time at the altar.

The show has already been heavily criticised for making a mockery of marriage and a petition on change.org has gathered almost 5000 signatures in the past month, News.com.au reports.

Nine has responded to the petition, clarifying that the couples do not actually wed in the legal sense, but take part in commitment ceremonies and decide whether they want to stay together 30 days later.

3. Two more people feared dead in Sydney’s wild weather.

Two more people are feared drowned after water police and SES crews find no trace of a silver Hyandai carried away by a torrent of water near Maitland today.

Special sonar equipment is being rushed from Sydney to search heavily flooded paddocks close to where the car carrying two elderly women, was swept away this morning, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Inspector Brian Tracey said hopes were fading of finding the women alive and, after three hours of searching, the mission was moving from rescue to recovery phase.

Four people who tried to assist the women have been rescued and are unhurt.

Three elderly people were killed in the town of Dungog yesterday when flood waters caught them off guard.

For rolling coverage of the NSW storm, click here. 

4. New Zealand PM John Key apologises for incessantly pulling waitress’ ponytail.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key has publicly apologised to an Auckland waitress for persistently pulling her hair during visits to her cafe.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports the woman’s online accusations that the Mr Key harassed and bullied her prompted the apology.

She said the hair pulling – where Mr Key would approach her with his hands up high and make “scary, suspense sound effects, like the music from the movie Jaws” – began around the election in September last year and continued until last month.

She said initially she believed it was playful, but she became angry, telling the PM, “Please stop or I will actually hit you soon.”

A statement on behalf of Mr Key said his actions were intended to be light-hearted.

“It was never his intention to make her feel uncomfortable and he has apologised to her,” it said.

5. Robin Williams spent his last days in a paranoid frenzy, documentary claims.

A British documentary to air tonight claims actor Robin Williams spent his final days in a paranoid frenzy.

The day before he killed himself, the 63-year-old Oscar-winning actor took a sock filled with his watch collection to a friend for safekeeping, the Daily Mail reports.

British show Autopsy claims Williams, who had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, was frantically looking up drugs in his final 24 hours, convicned something else was wrong with him.

A post-mortem apparently revealed he had an undiagnosed case of dementia, which could explain his bizarre behaviour.

6. Woman sues airline for allegedly leaving her husband to die.

Widow Kelly Ilczysyn has taken legal action against Southwest Airlines, claiming the airline’s staff mistook her late husband’s on-board medical emergency for unruly behaviour.

Richard Ilczysyn, 46, suffered a blood clot and was found unconscious in an aeroplane bathroom, News.com.au reports.

It is alleged crew members heard Mr Ilczysyn moaning and crying out in pain, opened the bathroom door and then closed it, treating the incident as disruptive behaviour.

Staff told sheriff’s officials, who boarded the plane after it landed, Mr Ilczysyn had barricaded himself in the bathroom so they disembarked the other passengers before reopening the door.

The lawsuit alleges that had paramedics attended to the passenger straight away, he would still be alive.

The airline said flight attendants handled the incident “appropriately and professionally”.

7. Embattled entrepreneur Belle Gibson admits she lied about curing cancer with a healthy diet.

Embattled Australian entrepreneur Belle Gibson has given her first interview since admitting her miraculous cancer survival story may have been based on a ‘misdiagnosis.’

Speaking exclusively to the Australian Women’s Weekly, Ms Gibson admitted she’d lied about curing the illness with a wholefood diet.

Asked outright if has ever had cancer, the 26-year-old social media ‘wellness guru’ admitted: “No. None of it’s true.

For more, read this post. 

Do you have a news tip? Email us at news@mamamia.com.au.

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