Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Monday 1 Nov 2010

Our popular news catch-up service is posted Monday to Friday at 8.0 am. You can rely on it to keep you up to date through the working day with the main news talking points. BOMB PLOT: TERRORISTS THREATENED 'ANOTHER LOCKERBIE'Investigators now believe the two explosive devices found in cargo consignments in Britain and Dubai before the weekend may have been intended to blow up passenger jets in midair. This theory has been reached after the discovery that both bombs travelled in the holds of passenger planes on the first stage of their journey from Yemen. Security officials believe the bombs were made, using hard-to-detect pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), by the Saudi-born extremist Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri. The al-Qaeda franchise behind the cargo bombs ALCOHOL 'SHOULD BE CLASSIFIED CLASS-A DRUG'If drugs were classified on the basis of the harm they do not only to the user but to the wider community, alcohol would be Class A alongside heroin and crack cocaine. That's the conclusion of a study led by the former government drugs adviser David Nutt. The coalition government will be under pressure to rethink the current drugs classification system and concentrate more effort on the dangers of alcohol. SPY CHIEF'S DAUGHTER POSES WITH KALASHNIKOV The daughter of MI6 boss Sir John Sawers has outraged the tabloids by posting a photo of herself on Facebook in which she is seen posing with a gold-plated Kalashnikov rifle (above) which reportedly once belonged to Saddam Hussein. Corrine Sawers, 23, is an Oxford graduate. The weapon is thought to have been given to her father as a momento of his time as the UK special representative in Baghdad, following the 2003 invasion. Echoes of Leila Khaled in golden AK-47 picture DILMA ROUSsEFF - BRAZIL'S FIRST WOMAN LEADER For the first time in its history, Brazil is to have a female leader. Dilma Rousseff, 62, won yesterday's presidential election, polling 56 per cent against 44 per cent for her nearest rival, Jose Serra. She will succeed President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. A former Marxist rebel, Rousseff has vowed to eradicate extreme poverty, telling a victory rally: "We cannot rest while Brazilians are going hungry." MURDER CHARGE WOMAN TURNS OUT TO BE A MAN A woman who appeared at the Old Bailey today charged with pushing a well-known transgender lawyer under a Tube train last week turned out to be a man in the process of undergoing a sex change. 'Nina' Kanagasingham is charged with murdering David Burgess, aka Sonia Jardiniere. She was remanded in custody to Wandsworth prison - a men's jail. 'Tube push' woman is really a man LIVERPOOL OUT OF THE BOTTOM THREELiverpool have at last moved out of the bottom three of the Premier League thanks to their first away win of the season. Their 1-0 victory over Bolton was down to a late goal from Argentine winger Maxi Rodriguez. Manager Roy Hodgson, who will meet Liverpool's American owners this week to discuss the club's future, said: "We live in a world of euphoria or tragedy and you try to steer an even keel between the two." Liverpool have a reason to smile at last END OF THE ROAD FOR PONTIACOne of the most iconic brands in the US auto industry, Pontiac, officially went out of business yesterday. Famous for muscle cars like the GTO, the Firebird Trans Am and the Bonneville, the brand was scrapped under parent company GM's bankruptcy restructuring. The marque's heyday was in the 1960s and 1970s. Burt Reynolds and Sally Fields fled the cops in a black and gold Firebird in the hit film Smokey and the Bandit. X FACTOR'S WAGNER IN DEEP WATERThe Brazilian-born Wagner Carrilho has survived another week of The X Factor, despite being rubbished by fellow contestants - and despite complaints about his off-screen antics. According to various reports, backing dancers have complained about his flirtatious behaviour, and he tried to get a 27-year-old researcher fired after she rejected his advances. The act sent home last night was the girl band Belle Amie. Johnny Dee on the pro-Wagner online campaign KENNEDY SPEECHWRITER TED SORENSEN DIEsThe man who wrote the famous line "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" - delivered by President John F Kennedy in his inaugural address in January 1961 - has died. Ted Sorensen was 82 and had suffered a stroke. He came from Lincoln Nebraska and once told the New York Times that he had been inspired by the words of President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, engraved beneath his statue in his home town. BRITISH AND FRENCH TO FIGHT togetherAn Anglo-French military treaty is due to be signed tomorrow following a meeting between David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy in London. It will allow British and French soldiers to fight alongside each other in a single brigade, and will likely lead to French fighter jets flying off a Royal Navy carriers. The agreement will stop short of full integration because the countries' interests are not always the same - France, for instance, strongly opposed the invasion of Iraq.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up