Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Thursday 7 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... DELHI BELLY HITS UK SWIMMERS Commonweath Games officials are investigating whether it is the quality of the pool water - rather than something in their diet - that has led to 15 swimmers in the UK team complaining of stomach upsets. Francesca Halsall had to be helped out of the pool when she became ill while swimming the 100m butterfly semi-final yesterday. She lagged tenth in a race she had been expected to win and vomited as she left the pool. Rebecca Adlington, the double Olympic champion, is among those suffering. PUBLIC SECTOR 'MUST PAY MORE FOR PENSIONS'Lord Hutton's report into public sector pensions recommends that 6m civil servants should pay higher contributions - which will mean, in effect, pay cuts within months if George Osborne takes up the recommendation in his October 20 spending review. Hutton also wants an end to the "inherently unfair" final salary pension schemes. However, he has not suggested any change for the armed forces, who currently pay nothing into their schemes. MORE SECRET TALKS FOR AFGHAN PEACE The Haqqani clan, the most fearsome insurgent group in Afghanistan, with links to al-Qaeda, has had direct talks with the Karzai government about a negotiated peace in Afghanistan, according to a report in today's Guardian. The paper also claims the US has had indirect contact with the Haqqani, through an intermediary. This follows a Washington Post claim - reported here yesterday - that Karzai's government was in touch with the Taliban through the Quetta Shura, headed by Mullah Omar. Who are the Haqqani and why are they so feared? CHILEAN MINE DRAMA: ONLY 100M TO GO Engineers drilling through 630 metres of rock to reach the Chilean miners trapped underground for more than two months says they have only 100m to go, and should reach the men early next week. Mine experts and navy doctors who will go down the shaft to prepare the miners for their evacuation are now rehearsing the rescue operation. CAMERON: YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOUDavid Cameron yesterday acknowledged that people were "anxious" about the impact of welfare cuts but said: "There is no other responsible way". He told the Conservative party conference in his first speech as PM that it was right that those with the "broader shoulders" should bear the largest burden in the effort to reduce the national deficit. Echoing the wartime words of Lord Kitchener, he said: "Your country needs you". Cameron's speech in full OIL SPILL REPORT ATTACKS OBAMAA commission appointed by Barack Obama to investigate the response to the BP oil spill has embarrassed the President by saying the White House "seemed to lag" in the early days of the disaster. The draft report from the National Oil Spill Commission claims Obama's administration overestimated BP's ability to deal with the crisis and underestimated the quantity of oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico. NOBEL LIT PRIZE GOES TO MARIA VARGAS LLOSA The Peruvian novelist, essayist and political activist Maria Vargas Llosa has been awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature, it was announced in Stockholm at lunchtime today. The 74-year-old author of The Time of the Hero and Conversation in the Cathedral, among many other titles, beat the bookies' favourites, who included Kenyan Ngugi wa Thiong'o, American Cormac McCarthy, and the popular Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami. Betting suspended on Booker Prize favourite McCarthy US 'SORRY' FOR HELICOPTER ATTACKThe United States has apologised to Pakistan for a "tragic accident" in which a US helicopter mistook Pakistani troops for insurgents last week, shooting two of them dead. As a result of the attack, militants in Pakistan have set fire to a number of fuel trucks destined for Nato bases in neighbouring Afghanistan. Forty trucks were set ablaze in the latest incident. Picture of the day: Nato oil tankers ablaze CHARLIE THE SMOKING CHIMP DIESCharlie, a chimpanzee at the Mangaung Zoo in Bloemfontein, South Africa, who became famous for smoking lit cigarettes left for him by visitors, has died at the age of 52. Smoking was only an "occasional habit" and is not thought to have contributed to his death. In fact, Charlie lived much longer than normal: most chimps live to around 40. Macaque kills Malaysian baby MICHELLE OBAMA 'MOST POWERFUL WOMAN'Michelle Obama tops the annual Forbes list of the world's most powerful women. Two other black Americans make the top ten - Oprah Winfrey at number three and Beyonce Knowles at nine. Lady Gaga comes seventh - 34 places ahead of the Queen of England, the only Brit on the list - helped by her daily audience of 25m followers on Facebook and Twitter, and her $62m-a- year earnings.

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