Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Friday 22 Oct 2010

HMS Astute

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... Nuclear submarine runs agroundReports from the Isle of Skye say the nuclear submarine HMS Astute (above) has run aground on the rocks, not far from the Skye road bridge. A Ministry of Defence spokesman insists: "This is not a nuclear incident". There are no crew injuries reported and the submarine remains watertight. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency is monitoring the incident. ROONEY SIGNS NEW CONTRACT WITH MAN UTDWayne Rooney has performed an astonishing U-turn and signed a new five-year contract with Manchester United, days after announcing he was leaving the club because it could not match his ambitions. Rooney's new deal is said to include a significant pay rise and manager Alex Ferguson said: "I think Wayne now understands what a great club Manchester United is." Neil Clark: Rooney's contract shenanigans are obscene Rooney signs new deal with United FRENCH RIOT POLICE END BLOCKADEFrench riot police have removed protesters blockading the Grandpuits oil refinery east of Paris, but unions have called two more strike days - for October 28 and November 6 - in protest against pension reforms. Alexander Cockburn, writing for The First Post, argues that the reforms are more complex than the western press has generally interpreted them, and that the strikers have good reason to protest. ESCAPED CROC CAUSED PLANE CRASHA small plane that crashed in the Democratic Republic of Congo this summer, killing 20 passengers and crew including a British co-pilot, came down after a crocodile smuggled aboard in a sports bag escaped and started a panic. The Filair plane crashed as it approached Bandundu on August 25. The cause has been revealed during testimony from the sole survivor. DUTCH FERRY CAPSIZESDivers are searching in the water for survivors after a Dutch passenger ferry was struck by a freight ship and capsized in a canal south of Amsterdam early today. It is believed the larger vessel "ran over" the smaller one, used to ferry passengers across the Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal canal near the town of Nieuwer Ter Aa. CLEGG DEFENDS COALITION CUTSDeputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has called "complete nonsense" the judgment of the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank that the coalition's £81bn spending cuts are "unfair" and that poorer families with children will be the "biggest losers". Clegg said the the IFS had taken no account of important factors such as access to public services and social mobility. KELLY's injuries 'were self-inflicted'Conspiracy theorists convinced that the death in 2003 of Dr David Kelly, the UN weapons inspector, was not suicide, have seen their argument undermined today by the Ministry of Justice's release of hitherto secret medical files. The postmortem report says the bleeding from his wrist - the main cause of death - was "entirely consistent with being inflicted with a bladed weapon". Ministry of Justice: the reports in full BUFFETT MAKES ANOTHER CANNY INVESTMENTThe third richest man in the world, US investor Warren Buffett, is on the verge of recouping the $5bn investment he made in Goldman Sachs at the peak of the financial crisis in 2008. A proposal by the bank to repay the loan will give Buffett a 12.5 per cent return over two years. The loan was seen at the time - just days after Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy - as a huge gamble. Business Digest: Buffett's canny investment CHINESE AUTHORITIES KILL UNBORN CHILDLuo Yanquan, a Chinese construction worker, has told how his eight-months-pregnant wife was dragged from their home by government officials and forced to have an abortion because the couple were breaking the one-child-per-family rule. Xiao Aiying, 36, was taken directly to hospital and injected with a drug to kill the unborn child. RAVE REVIEWS FOR FIRTH'S STUTTERING KING Actor Colin Firth has received rave reviews, prompting early talk of an Oscar, following the premiere of The King's Speech at the London Film Festival. Firth plays the stuttering Duke of York who was thrust onto the throne after his elder brother, Edward VIII, abdicated in 1936 in order to marry Wallis Simpson. In pictures: the London Film Festival

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Jack Bremer is a London-based reporter, attached to The Week.co.uk. He has reported regularly from the United States and France.