Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Tuesday 21 Jun 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. SHOTS FIRED DURING BELFAST RIOTSThe worst rioting for a decade took place in Belfast on Monday night as hundreds of loyalists and republicans clashed and two men suffered gunshot wounds. Police said the violence was orchestrated by the loyalist UVF and accused rioters who fired weapons at police of "attempted murder". Belfast violence: a lack of police resources? ESSEX TEENAGER ARRESTED IN HACKING PROBEAn Essex teenager, believed to be a member of hacking group LulzSec, has been arrested in a joint Scotland Yard and FBI probe into attacks on organisations including the CIA and Sony. LulzSec used twitter to deny that Ryan Cleary was part of the organisation and also refuted rumours it had stolen the 2011 census database. 'DISCOUNT' JAIL SENTENCE PLAN IS AXED Kenneth Clarke's proposal to offer 50 per cent discounts to offenders who plead guilty early was yesterday quashed by David Cameron who feared it would send the 'wrong signal' on crime. But the justice minister's plan to curb judges' power to impose indefinite sentences survived the Number 10 review. ASH CLOUD CAUSES CHAOS IN AUSTRALIA... AGAINAirlines Qantas and Virgin have cancelled all flights into and out of Sydney and Melbourne airports, and Adelaide airport has been shut as ash from a volcano in Chile causes chaos in Australia. The ash from Chile's Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano, which erupted in early June, has returned to Australia after circling the earth. BRITAIN TO FIELD UNIFIED FOOTBALL TEAM IN 2012Britain will have a unified football team at the 2012 Olympics in London. The British Olympic Association said an "historic agreement" had been reached that allowed Team GB to field a team. But the Scottish and Welsh FAs reacted angrily to the announcement. David Beckham (above) has said he would like to play for a British team. GREEK CRISIS: EU MUST ACT NOW, SAYS IMF BOSSThe hesitant response of European leaders to bailing out Greece risks triggering another global financial meltdown, the acting head of the IMF, John Lipsky, warned yesterday, as EU ministers delayed a €12bn payout until July. Meanwhile the UK Treasury has drawn up contingency plans in case Greece goes bankrupt. Why Greece should get out of the euro 'JACKASS' STUNT STAR DIES IN HIGH-SPEED CRASHComedian Ryan Dunn, a star of MTV's Jackass show and its hit film spin-offs which specialised in risqué stunts, died yesterday outside Philadelphia when his Porche 911 crashed at more than 100 mph and burst into flames. A passenger, not yet identified, died with Dunn. Jackass star Ryan Dunn dies in fiery car crash 44 DEAD AS RUSSIAN PLANE CRASHES ON MOTORWAYBodies were said to be strewn across the road after a Tupolev-134 passenger plane, en route from Moscow, crash-landed on a motorway a mile from Petrozavodsk airport in northern Russia late last night. At least 44 people are reported dead. "Everything was on fire," a witness said. HALF OF BRITONS 'HAVE GERMAN GENES'University College London geneticists found that as many as half of Britons have German genes with a common Y chromosome segment, a consequence of Anglo-Saxon migration after the Roman Empire, it is reported today. Der Spiegel says "there is no point" in Brits denying that they were "once Krauts". LARRY THE DOWNING STREET MOUSER SCORES THREE KILLSLarry the four-year-old tabby installed in No 10 after a rat was seen in Downing Street has caught at least three mice and is "doing well", David Cameron told the BBC last night. Larry does not like men, said the PM, though "funnily enough he liked Obama" when the US President came to call.
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