Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Tuesday 4 May 2010

published 4 May 2010

Slept through the Today programme? Got marooned by the dreadful Bank Holiday weather and missed the papers? The First Post's catch-up service, posted at 8.0 am, is designed to help... TIMES SQUARE BOMB ATTEMPT: SUSPECT HELD Investigators have arrested a US citizen of Pakistani origin suspected of planting a car bomb (above) that failed to explode in Times Square, New York on Saturday. Police sources say the man recently returned from a trip to Pakistan and bought the Nissan Pathfinder SUV in which the rudimentary bomb - made from fertiliser, fireworks and propane gas tanks - was discovered. The suspect has not been named and there is as yet no link established with the Pakistani Taliban, who claimed responsibility for the bomb attempt. GEORGE OSBORNE A DRAG ON TORY TICKET The Tories are ahead of Labour by eight points in a new ComRes poll - but it's still not enough to give them an overall majority. The First Post's Westminster Mole claims that a special poll of City figures shows that George Osborne, the shadow Chancellor, remains a drag on the Tory ticket. The fact that David Cameron has refused to drop him in favour of former Chancellor Ken Clarke remains "one of the great mysteries" of the election. More... ACTRESS LYNN REDGRAVE DIES AT 67 The film and stage actress Lynn Redgrave has died at 67. "Our beloved mother Lynn Rachel passed away peacefully after a seven-year journey with breast cancer," her children said yesterday after she died at her home in Connecticut. She was nominated twice for Oscars - in 1967 for Georgy Girl and again in 1999 for Gods and Monsters. She was the third member of the Redgrave acting dynasty to die in a little more than a year: her niece Natasha Richardson died in a freak skiing accident last April and her brother Corin Redgrave died in London last month. More... SCHWARZENEGGER TERMINATES OIL DRILLING Following the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, one of the great proponents of offshore drilling, Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger, has withdrawn his support for plans to expand oil exploration off the coast of California."Why would we want to take that kind of risk?" he said after seeing TV pictures of the oil slick. President Obama, visiting Louisiana at the weekend, said the US government would do whatever it takes to clean up, but that that BP was responsible and must pay. More... HIGGINS SCANDAL OVERSHADOWS SNOOKER FINAL Australian Neil Robertson beat Graeme Dott 18-13 at the Sheffield Crucible last night to win the world snooker title. He is the first player from outside the UK and Ireland to win it since Canadian Cliff Thorburn in 1980. But the dour final was overshadowed by a tabloid sting which appeared to have caught the world's number one player, John Higgins, agreeing on film to accept £261,000 from undercover News of the World reporters to throw frames in future matches. Higgins denies any wrongdoing, claiming he was intimidated into agreeing to the fix. VOLCANIC ASH STOPS FLIGHTS AGAIN Airports in Ireland and Scotland closed this morning by a cloud of ash spewing from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano have reopened. There is, however, still a possibility that flights over England will have to be halted as the wind carries the cloud southeast. Ryanair and Aer Lingus have resumed flights out of Ireland. Customers should expect slight delays if flying with either of these airlines. BLACKBERRY PREDICTED A CENTURY AGO The American electrical engineer Nikola Tesla, who gave his name to the Californian electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors, foresaw the Blackberry a century ago in an article for Popular Mechanics. The magazine's current technology editor, Seth Porges, told industry leaders at a recent presentation in New York how Tesla wrote in 1909 of a hand-held device that would be able to transmit wireless messages across the world. Tesla imagined it would be simple to use and "everyone" would have one. CHELSEA LOOK GOOD FOR PREMIER TITLE Chelsea look likely to win the Premier League next weekend after beating Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield on Sunday. They are one point ahead of Manchester United, who beat Sunderland 1-0. Chelsea must beat Wigan next Sunday to secure the title. Man Utd will face Stoke on the same day and are praying that Wigan can either beat Chelsea or hold them to a draw. But Man Utd manager Alex Ferguson admits "we are clutching at straws a little bit". WARREN BUFFETT 'DOESN'T ENVY NEXT PM' The billionaire investor Warren Buffett says he doesn't envy the winner of this week's British general election because whoever it is will have to make "politically very unpopular decisions" in order to tackle the country's "huge" deficit. Speaking at his shareholder meeting in Omaha - an annual jamboree known as the 'Woodstock for capitalists' - Buffett also said Britain's position was not as bad as that of Greece because the UK can print more of its own currency, which is "a wonderful asset". NUCLEAR WEAPONS DISGUSTING, SAYS AHMADINEJAD Delegates from Britain, the US and France walked out of a UN meeting in protest yesterday when President Ahmadinejad of Iran started lecturing those countries who have nuclear weapons, saying they were "disgusting and shameful". As the BBC's Mark Mardell reports, Ahmadinejad was the only head of state to turn up for the first day of a month-long conference on nuclear non-proliferation. "That in itself is seen by some as bare-faced cheek when the West believes his country is trying to make a nuclear weapon," writes Mardell.