Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Tuesday 14 Jun 2011

published 14 June 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. SYRIA UNDER PRESSURE TO STOP CRACKDOWNThe US has called on Syria to end its brutal crackdown on anti-government protestors in the north of the country. But military operations are said to be continuing in the Jisr al-Shughour region, where witnesses say troops are pursuing a scorched earth policy, burning down houses and destroying crops. GOVERNMENT TO RELAUNCH NHS REFORMS The coalition government will accept most of the changes to its NHS reform plans called for by the NHS Future Forum review, when it issues a formal response to the review today. It will slow down the process of giving more purchasing powers to GPs and reinstate the health secretary's legal responsibility for the service. NAVY can SUSTAIN LIBYA CAMPAIGN, says generalThe head of the armed forces, General Sir David Richards, has said Britain can continue operations in Libya for as long as it needed to after the First Sea Lord warned that defence cuts had left the Navy unable to sustain the mission to unseat Colonel Gaddafi. Richards told the BBC: "We can sustain this operation as long as we choose to". JUROR ADMITS CONTEMPT OVER FACEBOOK CONTACTA juror has admitted contempt of court after making contact with a defendent using Facebook. In the first case of its kind, London's High Court heard that a drugs trial collapsed after Joanne Fraill wrote to a man who had been acquitted even though the jury was still considering charges against other defendants. FIRE causes chaos in central LondonA fire in a disused building on the Strand in London's West End has caused transport chaos in the capital. Parts of the Strand and Waterloo Bridge were closed after a blaze took hold in Marconi House, which is being converted into a five-star hotel and 86 luxury flats designed by Sir Norman Foster's architecture firm. RUGBY STAR GAVIN HENSON TO BE TV 'BACHELOR'Welsh international Gavin Henson, recently split from singer Charlotte Church, has signed to star in a British version of the US reality TV show The Bachelor. Twenty-five women, including twins and models, will compete for him and he plans to find "a girl hopefully to spend the rest of my life with". 'UNFRIENDED' FACEBOOK DECLINES IN BRITAIN AND USThe numbers using Facebook have fallen in the US, Britain and Canada, the markets where the social networking phenomenon first took off. In the US, Facebook lost 6 million users last month, according to the research site Inside Facebook, Canada 1.5 million and Britain, 100,000. 'Friends' continue to sign up in developing countries. CHINA SUSPECTED OF IMF CYBER ATTACKHackers who broke into the International Monetary Fund's computers were sophisticated government-sponsored operators with techniques pointing to China, system security experts said last night. The attack involved a code to give a "digital insider presence" with access to the IMF files of secret national economic data. What is China's online blue army - and is it a threat? SECOND 'LESBIAN BLOGGER' OUTED AS A MANA second 'lesbian' blogger was last night exposed as a hoax and a man. Bill Graber, editing the website Lezgetreal.com as Paula Brooks, was found out after republishing the 'Gay Girl in Damascus' blog, a hoax by Tom MacMaster, an American at Edinburgh University. Graber said he had not meant to "con anyone". A Gay Girl in Damascus: not the first abuse hoax BECKHAM EAGER TO JOIN OLYMPIC TEAmDavid Beckham made a bid for a place on the Olympic football team last night, telling the BBC: "Decisions are still being made but I'd love to be part of it". Beckham, 36, could play as one of three 'over-aged' players in a team of under-23s. He last played for England in 2009.