Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Monday 3 Oct 2011

published 3 October 2011

AMANDA KNOX CLEARED OF MURDERAmanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were tonight cleared of murder. Convictions handed down in December 2009 were overturned by an appeal court sitting in Perugia. Knox must pay 22,000 euros to the Congolese bar owner Patrick Lumumba for slander, having accused him of Meredith Kercher's murder. Knox collapsed in tears on hearing the court's verdict. In pictures: Amanda Knox walks free Knox’s freedom would suit Berlusconi very nicely OSBORNE KEEPS COUNCIL TAX FREEZE Chancellor George Osborne has told the Conservative Party conference that he will extend the council tax freeze for another year after finding £805m to fund the move. But he also said that other taxes, including VAT, would only be cut when the government could afford it. He also announced a multibillion-pound credit-easing programme for small firms. Chancellor channels Jim Morrison in party speech WALL STREET DEMOS GO NATIONWIDE New York's 'Occupy Wall Street' protest against 'banksters' spread nationwide yesterday as demonstrators took to the streets of Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Denver and Seattle following Saturday's mass arrest on the Brooklyn Bridge. Police bailed most of the 700 arrested on public order charges as the Wall Street protest camp entered its third week. In pictures: occupy Wall Street MEGRAHI says lockerbie role exaggeratedThe man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing has told Reuters that his role in the attacks was "exaggerated" and that the truth would one day emerge. Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who was released from prison in Scotland two years ago because he was suffering terminal cancer, looked frail and spoke from a hospital bed at his home flanked by oxygen tanks. Lockerbie: Will Megrahi's death bring closure? No GREECE UNABLE TO MEET BUDGET TARGETSEurope faced new economic jitters this morning after Greece, at the heart of the debt crisis, announced that it will not be able to meet the budget deficit cuts demanded by the IMF and EU. Ministers announced that the 2011/12 deficit will be 8.5% of GDP, short of the 7.6% target, as inspectors visited Athens to decide whether to lend €8bn to avert a Greek default. BEREZOVSKY AND ABRAMOVICH COURT BATTLEA court case between oligarchs Roman Abramovich and Boris Berezovsky has begun at the High Court in London. Berezovsky is seeking more than £3.2bn in damages from Abramovich, claiming that he was "intimidated" by the Chelsea owner into selling shares in Russian oil company Sibneft for a fraction of their value. TUBE DRIVERS TO EARN £50,000Tube drivers in London could see their pay rise to more than £50,000 a year under a four-year wage deal thrashed out between London Underground and the unions. The deal involves a 5% pay increase this year and above-inflation rises for the next three years. Tube drivers currently earn around £46,000 and could be in line for rises of up to £10,000 if inflation remains high. NOBEL PRIZE WINNER DIED LAST WEEKScientist Ralph Steinman, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine this morning, died of cancer last week it has emerged. Professor Steinman was awarded the honour for his work on the human immune system. But the Rockefeller University where he worked was told today by his family that he had died after a battle with cancer. Al-QAEDA BOMB-MAKER ESCAPED US STRIKEThe US drone strike that killed the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen on September 30 did not also kill al-Qaeda bomb-maker Ibrahim al-Asiri, as had been reported over the weekend. US officials have confirmed that a Yemeni list of those who died in the strike on Awlaki's convoy does not include the Saudi-born Asiri. Robert Fox: Anwar al-Awlaki – dead but is his message buried too? SIZE MATTERS, AND IT'S WIDTH NOT LENGTHSocial dominance depends on penis size, and the measurement which counts is width rather than length because it is that which encourages the female to produce more young, a study of "mammal reproductive behaviour" by University of Liverpool scientists published in Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology asserts today. The animals studied were bank voles.