Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Monday 18 Oct 2010

published 18 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... FILIPINOS FLEE TYPHOON MEGIThe government of the Philippines declared a state of calamity after Typhoon Megi made landfall. Thousands of people in the north have fled their homes in fear of flash-floods and landslides as Typhoon Megi unleashes heavy rains and strong winds. One fisherman is already reported dead. The government in Manila, which was heavily criticised for its inadequate handling of Typhoon Ketsana last year, has troops on standby. DON'T HOLD BACK, BUSINESSMEN TELL OSBORNE Thirty-five UK business leaders, including the bosses of Asda, BT and Carphone Warehouse, have urged Chancellor George Osborne not to water down his plans to cut £83bn from the nation's deficit. In a letter to the Daily Telegraph they say delaying the necessary action will make it worse not better. "If the markets lose faith in the UK," they say, "interest rates will rise for all of us." The Mole: The time bomb ticking beneath this coalition DIVA FEVER VOTED OFF THE X FACTORCamp duo Diva fever and the Scottish-American singer Storm Lee were both voted off ITV's The X Factor last night after judges saved the girl group Belle Amie. Louis Walsh said the four-girl band "can grow and get better". US singer Katy Perry made a guest appearnce in a figure-hugging sequined catsuit to perform her new single, Fireworks. HOPES FADE FOR CHINA'S MISSING MINERS Five more miners have been found dead following a gas explosion at a Yuzhou city coalmine in central China, bringing the death toll to 31. Relatives of six men still missing are gathered at the mine head, but hopes were fading this morning. As The First Post reported yesterday, an average of seven miners die every day in China. After Chile: pits collapse in China and Ecuador WAYNE ROONEY 'TO QUIT MAN UTD' There was renewed speculation today that Wayne Rooney will leave Manchester United rather than sign a new contract following a very public bust-up with manager Sir Alex Ferguson over the recent revelation that the striker slept with a prostitute while his wife, Coleen, was pregnant. Yesterday the club said: "To suggest Wayne Rooney will be sold in January is nonsense." But several reputable football sources believe Rooney will leave - possibly for Manchester City. Will Rooney quit? MERKEL: 'MULTICULTURALISM HAS FAILED'Chancellor Angela Merkel has responded to growing resentment among Germans about high immigration levels by saying Germany's 'multikulti' concept had "utterly failed". The idea "that we are now living side by side and are happy about it" was a pretence. A recent poll showed a third of Germans see immigrants as no more than welfare cheats. What Angela Merkel meant to say about immagrants JERRY HALL DEFENDS JAGGER'S MANHOODMick Jagger's former wife, Jerry Hall, sprang to his defence yesterday after the media picked up guitarist Keith Richards's comment in his autobiography that the Rolling Stones frontman has "a tiny todger". Hall told Graham Norton on BBC Radio 2: "Mick is very well endowed. I should know I was with him for 23 years. Keith is just jealous." NEW CARRIERS - BUT NO PLANESThe two aircraft carriers being built in Scotland for the Royal Navy at a cost of £5.2bn will not be scrapped in this week's strategic defence review, because it is cheaper to continue building than abort the projects. But Defence Secretary Liam Fox has admitted there will be "a period of time" when there could be no planes to fly off them. This is due to a gap between the phasing-out of the current Harrier jump-jets and the delivery of new F35s from the States. Snow forecast for Britain Arctic winds are about to hit Britain and night time temperatures across the country are expected to fall below freezing with up to two inches of snow predicted for Scotland and northeast England. Wednesday will be the coldest day of the week, with daytime temperatures sinking to just 9C (48F) in the north and 11C (52F) in the south. First snow forecast for Britain Osama bin Laden 'living comfortably in pakistan'Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri are alive and living in relative comfort in Pakistan, according to a Nato official. The unnamed source told CNN that "Nobody in al-Qaeda is living in a cave." Bin Laden is thought to be under the protection of local tribal chieftains and the Pakistani intelligence service - a suggestion Pakistan's government denies. Osama bin Laden 'living in comfort in Pakistan'