Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Thursday 2 Sep 2010

Our popular 8.0 am news catch-up service, which until this week ran only on Monday mornings, is now going daily, Monday to Friday. You can rely on it to keep you up to date with the main news talking points through the day. HAGUE'S STATEMENT ILL-ADVISED, SAY PR MEN William Hague's decision to issue a very personal statement about his marriage - in which he admitted that his wife Ffion had suffered several miscarriages - has been deemed ill-advised by PR experts. Former tabloid editor Phil Hall said the Sunday papers "will now be crawling all over the private life of this young man " - referring to Hague's special adviser Chris Myers, who resigned yesterday over the "untrue" allegations of an improper relationship. The Mole on Hague's risky statement... Hague's statement on Chris Myers in full... THREE PAKISTANI CRICKETERS DROPPEDThe three Pakistan cricketers under investigation for match-rigging will miss the rest of the tour of England. Bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammed Amir and captain Salman Butt are not suspended, but have been left out by Pakistan team manager Yawar Saeed. All three are at the Pakistani High Commission in London today to answer the allegations raised by the News of the World last Sunday. HURRICANE EARL THREATENS NOrth CAROLINAThousands of people have been evacuated from North Carolina's barrier islands as Hurricane Earl threatens to cause significant storm surges along the US mid-Atlantic coast The Hurricane is a Category 4 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of intensity, compared to Hurricane Katrina's Category 3, which claimed nearly 2000 lives five years ago. No storm has threatened such a broad area of the US shoreline since Hurricane Bob in 1991. COULSON 'KNEW ABOUT PHONE HACKING' The New York Times has posted a lengthy article which claims that PM David Cameron's media advisor, Andy Coulson, freely discussed the use of unlawful voicemail intercepts while he was editor of the News of the World. Coulson told a Commons committee last year he had no knowledge of such activity. But journalists have told the NYT that Coulson ran a "do whatever it takes" newsroom and that phone hacking was pervasive. "Everyone knew," one reporter said. "The office cat knew." More on the New York Times' Coulson expose... APPLE TAKES ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTERApple is taking on Facebook and Twitter with a new social-networking service aimed specifically at music fans. Unveiled by Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Wednesday, Ping will be built into the iTunes software, currently used by more that 160m people worldwide. "It's like Facebook and Twitter meets iTunes," said Jobs. "You can follow your favourite artists and friends and discover what music they like and are downloading." The verdict on Apple iPod, iOS4.1 and Ping... OBAMA: 'DON'T MISS THE CHANCE FOR PEACE'President Barack Obama has urged PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, in Washington for peace talks, not to let the chance of a permanent deal between Israelis and Palestinians slip away. "This moment of opportunity may not soon come again," he said. The talks start today in the wake of another shooting of Israeli settlers in the West Bank. A man and a woman were attacked near Ramallah. Alexander Cockburn: another useless summit... DISCOVERY GUNMAN SHOT DEAD BY POLICE Three people taken hostage at the headquarters of the Discovery Channel in Silver Spring, Maryland, have been released after the gunman was shot dead by police. James Jay Lee, who was known for protesting outside the building, entered the HQ at about 5pm local time with metallic canisters strapped to his chest and waving a handgun. He was shot when police thought he was about to detonate explosives. BLAIR GOES TO NO 1 - BUT UPSETS THE MILIBANDSGood news for the Royal British Legion. Tony Blair's memoir, A Journey, has gone straight to the top of Amazon.co.uk's British bestseller list. It sold more copies in a day at Waterstones than Lord Mandelson's memoir managed in three weeks. However, it has not gone down well with the two frontrunners in the Labour leadership race. Both David and Ed Miliband have have had to distance themselves from Blair's support for the coalition government's hardline strategy for tackling the national deficit. How Blair turned to drink... Blair's book: the highlights... DG ADMITS 'MASSIVE LEFT-WING BIAS' BBC Mark Thompson, Director-General of the BBC, has told the New Statesman that the broadcaster used to be guilty of a "massive" left-wing bias. Journalists were "mystified" by the early years of the Thatcher government and the BBC "did struggle then with impartiality". But he said it was now a broader church, with "much less overt tribalism" among young journalists. HOT FOOD BUT NO CIGARETTES FOR TRAPPED MINERSAs they await their rescue, the 33 trapped Chilean miners have had their first hot meal since their ordeal began - meat balls - but have been denied alcohol and cigarettes on the advice of Nasa officials advising the Chilean authorities on their care. Smokers will get nicotine patches and gum.

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