Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Friday 20 Jan 2012

1. 370,000 MIGRANTS ON UK BENEFITS

More than 370,000 migrants who first came to Britain to work, study or visit are now claiming out-of-work benefits, according to the first research of its kind. The revelation has prompted a debate about whether the welfare system is too open to "benefit tourists". Other countries would have sent them home, says The Daily Telegraph.

Should we be worried about 370,000 migrants on benefits?

2. IRA DISSIDENTS ATTACK LONDONDERRY

Police have described as cowardly and callous two bombs attacks in Londonderry last night after telephone warnings gave them only 30 minutes to clear the area. The bombs exploded in Strand Road and Foyle Street within ten minutes of each other. The attacks have been ascribed to IRA dissidents.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The Northern Ireland question: Alex Salmond's ticking bomb

3. GO BACK TO CABINS, PASSENGERS TOLD

Amateur video footage has emerged showing the crew of the Costa Concordia advising passengers to "kindly return" to their cabins and that "everything is under control" – even after the cruise ship had started to take in water. Other reports say the captain was seen with a glamorous blonde shortly before the ship hit the rocks.

Concordia captain dined with young blonde before crash

4. GINGRICH FURY OVER 'OPEN MARRIAGE'

Newt Gingrich reacted with fury last night when he was asked on a CNN debate about his former wife Marianne's claim that he had requested an "open marriage" so that he could continue to have an affair with another woman, who went on to become his third wife. Gingrich is neck-and-neck with Mitt Romney in South Carolina.

Could Gingrich's fury win him the Republican nomination?

5. GOODWIN 'SHOULD LOSE KNIGHTHOOD'

Labour leader Ed Miliband has admitted that his predecessor Gordon Brown was wrong to give Fred Goodwin, the former RBS chief executive, a knighthood "knowing what we do now" and joined the calls for 'Fred the Shred' to be stripped of the honour. David Cameron says he is "sympathetic" to the calls.

6. US HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS SUFFER 'HYSTERIA'

Twelve New York state high school girls who have started twitching, stuttering and showing Tourette's-like synptoms are suffering from a modern-day version of what Freud termed hysteria, according to neurologist Lazlo Mechtler. He has told The Week: "What has happened to these girls is the result of Americans being made to live in fear."

NY schoolgirls hysteria doctor blames constant terror alerts

7. BECKHAM WANT TO BUY SOCCER TEAM

David Beckham hopes to buy his own US Major League Soccer team, at a cost of $40m, when his LA Galaxy contract expires in two years time. Recent negotiations to keep the player at Galaxy hinged on Becks gaining assurance from the club that they would help him become a franchise owner in the future.

Beckham hopes to buy his own football team in US

8. GOOGLE SHARES FALL ON BAD AD NEWS

Shares in Google fell by ten per cent on Wall Street yesterday after the search giant reported profits way short of analysts' expectations. Although revenues were up 27% overall for the last quarter, the rate the company was able to charge for Google ads fell 8%. "Expectations had got ahead of themselves," said one analyst.

Google is mortal: shares fall on disappointing Q4 results

9. 'I GOT TOO COCKY' SAYS SIMON COWELL

Talent show impresario Simon Cowell says he is in talks with Richard Branson to send the next winner of Britain's Got Talent into space aboard the Virgin Galactic spacecraft. He also told The Sun that his failure to net 20 million viewers for the US version of The X Factor was down to his arrogance, admitting "I got a bit too cocky."

10. HOT TICKET: FIENNES UPDATES CORIOLANUS

Ralph Fiennes's screen adaptation of Shakespeare's most violent political drama opens at UK cinema today. Fiennes directs and stars as Shakespeare's ill-fated Roman general locked in a life-and-death power struggle with Aufidius (Gerard Butler). The action is transposed to the modern-day Balkans: the Telegraph calls it "strikingly imaginative".

Fiennes' Coriolanus: a bloody brilliant Shakespeare thriller