Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Friday 30 Sep 2011
Anwar al-awlaki 'killed in Yemen'US-born Islamist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki (above) has been killed by Yemeni security forces, the country's defence ministry has claimed. Awlaki is thought to have been a regional commander in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. His slick marketing skills saw him dubbed the 'bin Laden of the internet'. Anwar al-Awlaki – dead but is his message buried too? MOTORWAY SPEED LIMIT COULD RISE TO 80Transport secretary Philip Hammond said yesterday that he will launch a consultation on increasing the speed limit on England and Wales' motorways from 70 to 80mph as the current limit, set in 1965, was out of date due to "huge advances in safety and motoring technology". The urban speed limit, however, could come down to 20 from 30. Tories rev up for motorway speed limit increase WINEHOUSE-BENNETT ALBUM GOES TO No 1The 85-year-old American singer Tony Bennett became the oldest ever to score a US number one album yesterday when Duets II, featuring Amy Winehouse in one of her last performances, reached the top spot with 179,000 sold in its first week, according to Billboard magazine. Lady Gaga and Mariah Carey also feature. MOUSSA IBRAHIM FOUND 'DRESSED AS WOMAN'Moussa Ibrahim, the mouthpiece of the Gaddafi regime who became a television fixture in the early days of the Libyan uprising, has been captured by National Transitional Council troops outside the city of Sirte, Col Gaddafi's birthplace. According to some reports, Ibrahim was dressed in women's clothes as he was caught trying to escape by car. Gaddafi’s man Ibrahim held ‘dressed as woman’ In pictures: The battle for Sirte MoD 'TO BLAME' FOR FORCES REDUNDANCIESDefence secretary Liam Fox has told the Guardian that the Ministry of Defence must take its share of responsibility for the thousands of redundancies in the forces, including 1,000 Navy personnel being sacked today. He blamed a "complete breakdown of trust" between the military and the rest of Whitehall over ballooning costs. OUTRAGE AS BAHRAIN JAILS MEDICS Twenty Bahraini doctors and nurses who treated protesters wounded during anti-government protests were jailed yesterday for between five and 15 years in sentences that were denounced by medical bodies and human rights groups worldwide. Most worked at the Salmaniya hospital, popular with Shia Muslims protesting against the Sunni ruling family. AMANDA KNOX's 'MILLION DOLLAR' PR CAMPAIGNItalian prosecutors in the appeal of Amanda Knox have accused her of running a "million dollar" publicity campaign and trying to pin the blame for the murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher "on the black guy" - co-accused Rudy Guede. Yesterday her defence team claimed she had been "crucified, impaled on the public square" by the media. A verdict is expected on Monday. Hollywood waits in wings for Amanda Knox verdict RIO FERDINAND LOSES PRIVACY BATTLEManchester United footballer Rio Ferdinand has lost his High Court privacy action over a 'kiss and tell' story in the Sunday Mirror about his private life. The England international sued the paper for misuse of private information over an article in April 2010 in which Carly Storey gave an account of her 13-year relationship with Ferdinand, but lost. BARCLAY BROTHERS BUY CLARIDGESClaridges and two other top London hotels, the Connaught and the Berkeley, have been bought by the secretive Channel Island investors the Barclay brothers, Sir David and Sir Frederick, for £695 million from Nama, the Irish government agency managing the toxic loans of its bust banks. The Barclays already own the Ritz, and the Daily Telegraph. LLOYD'S INSURES LAS VEGAS BREASTS FOR $1MLloyd's of London has written a $1 million insurance policy on the breasts paraded in a Las Vegas production called Peepshow by the an American reality TV star, Holly Madison, 31. "If anything happened to my boobs, I'd be out for a few months and I'd probably be out a million dollars," she told People magazine yesterday. Her breasts were her "primary money-makers".
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