Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Saturday 18 Sep 2010

published 18 September 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... POPE TO MEET PM AS SIX REMAIN IN CUSTODY Pope Benedict is to meet the Prime Minister and senior politicians in London on the third day of his state visit to the UK before an open-air vigil in Hyde Park this evening. Meanwhile, six street sweepers arrested over an alleged plot against the pontiff remain in custody, though it is thought police felt the likelihood of an attack was low. The Pope's UK visit in pictures Pope's aide calls Britain 'Third World' Public figures hit out at Pope visit ESCAPE TUNNEL REACHES TRAPPED MINERSChilean authorities have announced a major breakthrough after weeks of drilling as an escape shaft successfully reaches 33 miners trapped underground by a tunnel collapse. However, it will take at least six weeks to widen the shaft sufficiently for the men to be winched out, one by one. The miners will have to clear tonnes of rubble as drilling continues. Trapped miners await deepest rescue in history CLEGG: NO FUTURE FOR LEFT-WING LIBERALS Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has issued a stark message to his party on the eve of its conference, which starts today, saying there was “no future” for the Lib Dems as a left-wing alternative to Labour. Aware he will be criticised for his part in the coalition’s heavy spending reforms, he said: “I certainly didn't go into politics to make cuts.” The Mole: Clegg faces an angry mob RUSSELL BRAND ARRESTED IN LA British actor and comedian Russell Brand was taken into custody in Los Angeles International Airport yesterday after allegedly attacking a photographer after he and his fiancee, singer Katy Perry, were surrounded by paparazzi in the terminal building. Brand was released on $20,000 bail. A video of the altercation has appeared on the web. Brand's bad-boy rocker woos critics IMRAN FAROOQ MURDER ‘WAS POLITICAL’ Police have confirmed they are working on the assumption that the murder of a senior Pakistani opposition politician on a London street on Thursday night was a political assassination. Imran Farooq, a founder of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, was stabbed and beaten near his north London home as he returned from his job as a pharmacist. SPEAKER'S WIFE CALLS OSBORNE 'MENTAL'Senior Tories are calling on Sally Bercow - Labour party member and wife of the Speaker, John Bercow - to "shut up" after she posted a series of blunt tweets. "Who knew George Osborne was So macho. Or mental," she mused in one. "Of course the 17 Cabinet millionaires are worrying about how the cuts will affect their lives," read another. The Mole: Will Bercow's TV cameras catch drunks? ICC TO PROBE PAKISTAN’S ONE-DAY WINThe International Cricket Council has started an investigation into suspicious scoring patterns in Friday’s third one-day international between England and Pakistan at the Oval, which Pakistan won by 23 runs. Just the latest blight to hit the Pakistan team, the investigation has been prompted by information passed on by the Sun newspaper. Pakistan players face tax probe MALCOLM MCLAREN’S ‘SPITEFUL’ WILL CONTESTED Joe Corre, son of punk impresario and Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren, is to contest his father’s will after it emerged that McLaren, who died of cancer in April at 64, left him nothing. McLaren’s entire legacy went instead to his 37-year-old Korean-American long-time girlfriend. Corre claims his father was too ill to know what he was doing. In pictures: Punk godfather laid to rest VIOLENCE AS POLLS OPEN IN AFGHANISTAN Two people were killed in the early hours of this morning as Afghanistan’s polling stations opened for a national parliamentary election. The Taliban had vowed to disrupt the vote and in the first hour of voting, rockets struck major cities across the nation. An attack in Baghlan in the north of the country killed two civilians, police said. British soldiers 'smuggle heroin from Afghanistan' TARANTINO ACCUSED OF NEPOTISM – AGAIN One week after the end of the 67th Venice Film Festival, chair of the judges Quentin Tarantino, who presented awards to his ex-girlfriend and his long-time mentor has again been accused of nepotism. In an astonishing outburst, Italy’s culture minister Sandro Bondi dubbed him elitist and snobbish, and threatened to pick next year’s jury himself. Sophia Coppola wins Golden Lion at Venice