Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Wednesday 27 Oct 2010

published 27 October 2010

Our popular news catch-up service is posted Monday to Friday at 8.0 am, and on weekends at 11.0 am. You can rely on it to keep you up to date with the main news talking points... TSUNAMI AND VOLCANIC ERUPTION: DEATH TOLL MOUNTS Bad weather and aftershocks have hampered the search for survivors of the tsunami which wiped out 4,000 homes in the Indonesian Mentawai islands on Monday. The death toll has gone above 272 and there are still hundreds of people unaccounted for. Meanwhile, the eruption of Mount Merapi on the Indonesian island of Java has claimed 28 fatalities, many of the victims burned to death by heat clouds. Pictures: Mount Merapi erupts LARA STONE WINS PLAYBOY PHOTOS LAWSUITThe Dutch-born model Lara Stone (above), married to Little Britain actor David Walliams, has won "significant" damages after suing French Playboy for publishing unauthorised photographs of her in June. She plans to donate the money to Great Ormond Street children's hospital. The legal victory comes days after a Calvin Klein jeans ad starring Stone was banned in Australia because it appeared to condone gang rape. THREE BRITISH ARMY UNITS UNDER SPOTLIGHT The conduct of soldiers belonging to three specific units of the British Army has been put under the spotlight after the Guardian requested - under Freedom of Information rules - details of military attacks on Afghan civilians. As a result, it has been disclosed that the Coldstream Guards, the Royal Marine commandos and the Rifles were involved in two-thirds of all reported incidents. Children were among the casualties. HERNANDEZ THE HERO FOR MAN UTDManchester United fans have a new hero in the form of young Mexican striker Javier Hernandez - aka Chicharito, the Little Pea - who scored a late winner as his side beat Wolves to book a place in the Carling Cup quarter finals. It was his third goal in three days, and after the game Sir Alex Ferguson heaped praise on the 22-year-old, who could keep Wayne Rooney out of the side when he returns from injury. Carling Cup report: Hernandez to the rescue BA BOSS COMPLAINS OF OVER-THE-TOP AIRPORT SECURITY The separate screening of laptops at UK airports, and the requirement that passengers take off their shoes, are over-the-top rules imposed on Britain by the Americans, according to the chairman of British Airways, Martin Broughton. He said we should stop "kowtowing" to the US and impose only those checks that are required on domestic flights in the US - which are far fewer. SWINE FLU KILLED 70 ENGLISH CHILDRENLast year's nine-month swine flu pandemic killed 70 children in England and research published in the Lancet shows death rates were proportionately higher among Bangladeshi and Pakistani children. Sir Liam Donaldson, the former Chief Medical Officer, says ethnic minority children should now be added to the higher risk groups for seasonal flu vaccination. CHARLIE SHEEN 'TRASHED HOTEL ROOM'Charlie Sheen has left hospital in New York and flown back to LA after an incident in which he was found by police drunk and naked having trashed his suite at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. The actor had apparently flown into a rage after thinking he had lost his wallet and phone. Some reports claim a prostitute "screaming for her life and naked" was found in a locked wardrobe. Sheen heads home after raising hell in Manhattan THREE OUT OF FOUR INCAPACITY CLAIMS PHONY Tough new welfare tests have shown that three-quarters of people claiming long-term sickness benefit were not too ill to work. The Department for Work and Pensions says that among those refused the £95-a-week Employment and Support Allowance were thousands claiming they couldn't work because they had sexually transmitted diseases or were too fat. GORBACHEV SLAMS PUTIN Mikhail Gorbachev, the final leader of the Soviet Union, has criticised Vladimir Putin for trying to cling to power. He told the BBC that Putin and his successor as Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, are "doing everything they can to move away from democracy, to stay in power". It is widely believed that Putin, who became prime minister in 2008 after two terms as president, will return to the post after elections in 2012. FORMER ARGENTINE PRESIDent kirchner dies Former Argentine president Nestor Kirchner has died of a heart attack at the age of 60. Kirchner, who had undergone heart surgery in February and September of this year, died in the southern city of El Calafate with his wife Cristina - Argentina's current president - by his bedside.