Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Monday 19 Apr 2010

Slept through the Today programme? Enjoyed the sunshine - and those quiet skies - and missed the Sunday papers? The First Post's Monday morning service, posted at 8.0 am, is designed to help... POPE PRAYS AND WEEPS WITH MALTESE VICTIMSA group of Maltese men who were sexually abused by members of the Catholic clergy when they were children told reporters yesterday how they prayed and wept in a private meeting with Pope Benedict during his pilgrimage to the Mediterranean island of Malta. Lawrence Grech, spokesmen for the men who were systematically abused at the St Joseph's orphanage in the 1980s and 90s, said: "After 25 years now I can go back to church." Asked whether the Pope had apologised, Grech said: "He did not have to say sorry because the abuse was not the fault of one person." NAVY TO HELP BRING STRANDED BRITS HOMEThe ban on flights from British airports, caused by the ash spewing out of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajoekull, remains in place until at least 1.0 am Tuesday. Business Secretary Lord Mandelson yesterday announced an emergency plan to bring home an estimated 200,000 people stranded abroad. Spain, where airports are open, could be used as a hub where Britons stranded across the world could be flown and then brought home by sea. Royal Navy and merchant ships are standing by to help. Many schools are affected by the ban on flights, with teachers and pupils stranded abroad. British Airways is losing £25m a day, Easyjet £5m a day. Pictures... SECOND POLL PUTS LIB DEMS IN THE LEADFor the second day running, an opinion poll has put the Lib Dems in first place following the hugely popular reaction to Nick Clegg's performance in last week's TV debate. The YouGov poll for the Sun has the Lib Dems on 33 per cent, ahead of the Tories on 32 per cent and Labour on 26 per cent. A BPIX poll for the Mail on Sunday showed: Lib Dems 32, Tories 31, Labour 28. The effect, if voters stick to their intentions, could be to divide the vote against Labour, allowing Gordon Brown to remain in power. Tory leader David Cameron has warned voters: "Vote Clegg and you get Brown". The Mole... MAJORITY WANT TROOPS OUT OF AFGHANISTANAn opinion poll conducted by the Independent on Sunday suggests 77 per cent of British people want troops to come home from Afghanistan in a phased, orderly withdrawal. A majority believe the British presence in Afghanistan makes the mainland less safe from terrorist attack - and yet none of the three main parties advocates a withdrawal in its election manifesto. You read it here first... BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT RETURNSThe Saturday night TV fixture Britain's Got Talent restarted this weekend. The first likely contender to be canonised as this season's 'SuBo' is 10-year-old Chloe Hickinbottom who belted out Vera Lynn's wartime classic, The White Cliffs of Dover. Also grabbing the headlines is 22-year-old dancer Tobias Mead with his back-to-front 'body-popping' routine. He claims his father was furious with him for giving up a promising football career to become a dancer - and the tabloids have already dubbed him "the Billy Elliot of Britain's Got Talent". IS SOUTH AFRICA READY FOR WORLD CUP?Eight weeks before the World Cup kicks off, the England football team's training base in South Africa remains a building site. A reporter for the Independent on Sunday gained access to the Bafokeng Sports Campus and discovered large areas of the complex off limits because of construction work. Nor is the road complete between the campus and the nearby Royal Bafokeng Stadium where England are due to play their first match against the USA on June 12. PM DEMANDS GOLDMAN SACHS INQUIRYPrime Minister Gordon Brown wants the Financial Services Authority to inquire immediately into the revelation that Goldman Sachs is planning to hand out £3.5bn in staff bonuses for just three months' work - an average payout of £110,000 per head - and to ascertain whether the bank tricked investors into buying bogus mortgage securities. This is the charge brought against Goldman Sachs by the US Securities and Exchange Commission who launched a lawsuit on Friday. More... PRESIDENT KACZYNSKI BURIED Following a week of mourning in Poland, President Lech Kaczynski was buried in Krakow on Sunday following a funeral mass in St Mary's Basilica for the Polish leader and 95 others, including his wife, who died when their plane crashed in Russia a week ago. The cloud of volcanic ash hanging over Europe meant that many world leaders were unable to attend: Prince Charles, President Obama, Chancellor Merkel and President Sarkozy were among those forced to stay away. BLACK SUNDAY FOR ARSENAL AND LIVERPOOLArsenal's hopes of staying in the Premier League title race - kept alive by the defeat of league leaders Chelsea by Spurs on Saturday - nose-dived yesterday when Wigan came from behind to beat them 3-2. There was bad news for Liverpool too: striker Fernando Torres has been ruled out for the remainder of the season because of a torn cartilage in his right knee. 'OBAMA EFFECT' IMPROVES US REPUTATION An annual poll conducted for the BBC World Service shows that, for the first time in five years, America's influence in the world is now seen as more positive than negative. Nearly 30,000 people in 28 countries were interviewed by GlobeScan, whose chairman Dog Miller said: "People around the world today view the United States more positively than at any time since the second Iraq war." Steven Kull of the University of Maryland said: "After a year, it appears the 'Obama effect' is real."

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