Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Monday 4 Jul 2011

published 4 July 2011

Our popular news catch-up service is posted Monday to Friday at 8.0am. You can rely on it to keep you up to date through the working day with the main news talking points. DSK FACES RAPE LAWSUIT FROM FRENCH WRITER With rape charges against Dominque Strauss-Kahn in America set to be dropped lawyers have announced that French writer Tristane Banon is to file a lawsuit for attempted rape against the former IMF chief. Meanwhile, a poll by French newspaper Le Parisien shows the French public divided over whether Dominique Strauss-Kahn has a future in politics. Strauss-Kahn: are we too quick to assume innocence? Could he still be president of France? RATKO MLADIC REMOVED FROM COURTFormer Serbian general Ratko Mladic was removed from the UN war crimes court at The Hague after rowing with the judge this morning. He was ordered out of the hearing after continually interrupting and the court entered not guily pleas on his behalf. Mladic, who facews charges including genocide, is demanding a new lawyer. Ratko Mladic ejected from UN war crimes court HUGE SEARCH FOR MISSING SOLDIER IN AFGHANISTANA massive search has been launched in Afghanistan after a British soldier went missing from his base in central Helmand. There are concerns that he may have been captured by the Taliban. A spokesman for the militant group claimed to have captured a soldier and executed him, but Nato and the MoD refused to comment. UK TO GIVE £38M TO PREVENT ETHIOPIA CATASTROPHEBritain has pledeged £38m of emergency aid to feed people in Ethiopia after it was warned that the Horn of Africa is on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe. The worst drought in decades means that 1.3m people are thought to be at risk of starvation. The extra cash will go to the World Food Programmes relief work. OLD AGE CARE PROPOSALS UNVEILEDA commission of experts led by economist Andrew Dilnot has reported its finding on social care today. It recommends capping the costs of care so that people do not lose their assets. He called for a lifetime cap of £35,000 on costs and said councils should help anyone with assets of less than £100,000. JAPANESE MAN ADMITS BODY IN BATH MURDERTatsuya Ichihashi has appeared in court and admitted killing British teacher Lindsay Hawker, whose body was found in a sand-filled bath. Prostrating himself on the floor of the court in front of her parents, who looked on stony-faced, he admitted raping her and causing her death, but denied that it was murder. Lindsay Hawker killer goes on trial in Japan SHINAWATRA'S SISTER BECOMES THAI P.M.Yingluck Shinawatra, sister of Thailand's exiled former PM Thaksin Shinawatra has won a landslide victory to become the first female leader of her country. The 44-year-old businesswoman, with no previous political experience, has been described by her brother as his "clone". Her victory will reopen political divisions. Thaksin’s puppet sister takes power in Thailand ACTRESS ANNA MASSEY DIES AT 73Bafta-winning actress Anna Massey has died at the age of 73. Massey, who was suffering from cancer, won her Bafta for her role in the 1986 TV adaptation of Hotel du Lac. She was awarded a CBE for services to acting in 2004. She also appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's 1972 movie Frenzy and with Gwyneth paltrow in a film of AS Byatt's Possession. GIANT HORSE MAY NEVER GALLOP OVER EBSFLEETTurner-prize winning artist Mark Wallinger's enormous horse sculpture, which was intended to define the south-east of England just as the Angel of the North has become emblematic of the north-east, may never be built. The planned cost of the 50-metre high stallion has soared from £2m to £12m – just too expensive. MI6 'WARNED BLAIR AGAINST RIVALRY WITH BROWN'The latest instalment of Alastair Campbell's diaries, serialised in the Guardian today, show that MI6 warned Tony Blair that his long-running feud with then-chancellor Gordon Brown risked harming Britain's interest on the world stage. "Spooks" told the PM that Paris and Berlin hoped to use the rivalry against the UK.