Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Saturday 23 Oct 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... WIKILEAKS REVEALS 15,000 MORE IRAQ DEATHSThe Pentagon was forced into damage limitation last night as the WikiLeaks website made public 391,000 secret documents relating to American actions in Iraq which uncovered 15,000 previously unreported Iraqi civilian deaths and showed the US had turned a blind eye to systematic abuse and torture by Iraqi police and soldiers. ROONEY NOW WORLD'S HIGHEST-PAID FOOTBALLERWayne Rooney's about-turn contract with Manchester United, a five-year deal signed at the end of a week when he said he was leaving the club because its ambitions didn't match his, will make him the highest-paid footballer in the world. Reports say he will earn as much as £200,000 a week, a huge rise on his previous £90,000. Neil Clark: Rooney's contract shenanigans are obscene Rooney signs new deal with United GROUNDED NUCLEAR SUB CHECKED FOR DAMAGEThe £1bn nuclear submarine HMS Astute has been floated off the shingle bank where she was accidentally grounded yesterday during trials. Now the ship will be checked for damage by a team of Navy divers. The ten-hour grounding yesterday off the Isle of Skye, acutely embarrassing for Navy officials, may have damaged her rudder. BRAND'S MINDERS 'BASHED PHOTOGRAPHER' CLAIMRussell Brand was enjoying a safari with pal David Baddiel ahead of his hindu wedding to Katy Perry (above) in India yesterday when his minders allegedly punched a photographer and took his car keys, just as a man-eating tiger was spotted nearby. Luckily for Brand, police took no action and his nuptials will go ahead later today. CUTS WILL SEND UK BACK TO 1931, SAYS ECONOMISTA Nobel prize-winning US economist has warned that George Osborne's severe cuts to public services will plunge the UK back into a 1930s-style depression. Professor Paul Krugman, of Princeton, says the Government's plan "boldly goes in exactly the wrong direction" and claims the UK in 2011 will look like "Britain in 1931". Austerity hypocrites have no right to attack Osborne NORMAN WISDOM LAID TO RESTThe funeral of comic actor Sir Norman Wisdom, who died at the age of 95 earlier this month, took place in Douglas on the Isle of Man yesterday. Hundreds of mourners lined the streets, with fans who had travelled from all over the world. Wisdom's son recalled his father's funerary wishes as: "Just chuck me off the end of the pier." WILLS AND KATE HAD SECRET SAFARIPrince William and his girlfriend Kate Middleton returned yesterday from a ten-day safari together in Kenya to celebrate William passing his RAF helicopter search and resuce course. The news will fuel speculation that the pair – whose relationship has been on-again-off-again in the past – may soon announce they are getting married. Wills and Kate: Royal Mint leak hints wedding is near JANE AUSTEN'S EDITOR CREATED HER PROSE STYLENew study of the original manuscripts of Jane Austen's novels has prompted an academic to claim that the author was not the perfect prose stylist she has always been thought to be. Her grammar was erratic and she used regional dialect, says Professor Kathryn Sutherland, who believes Austen relied heavily on her editor's help. KATE MOSS GOES UNDER THE AIRBRUSHA new set of photographs of Kate Moss, for a Brazilian lingerie firm, are so heavily airbrushed they make the 36-year-old supermodel look 18. Preternaturally youthful in the pictures, Moss is still enjoying a resurgence in her career despite revelations of drug abuse. This week she appeared on the cover of Bryan Ferry's new album. PENN JILLETTE'S BATH FOR MASTURBATING WOMENMagician Penn Jillette is also an inventor, it has emerged. A US magazine says the tall half of Penn and Teller was granted a patent in 1999 for his "hydro-therapeutic stimulator", the Jill-Jet. Essentially a Jacuzzi, the Jill-Jet has "a dedicated stream of fluid that is directed to specific sensitive areas of a female's genitalia".

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