Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Monday 24 Sep 2012

1. CABLE PROMISES £1BN 'BUSINESS BANK'

Business secretary Vince Cable has announced that the government will put £1bn in equity and guarantees into setting up a bank designed to increase the amount of lending to businesses which have struggled for credit since the financial crisis. The bank will funnel the money through "existing lenders" and will start within 18 months.

Cable unveils state-backed bank to give £10bn to businesses

2. DAME MAGGIE WINS EMMY FOR DOWNTON

Dame Maggie Smith won the Emmy for Best Supporting Actress for her role as the Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey in Los Angeles last night. Damian Lewis won the Outstanding Lead Actor award for his role in the drama series Homeland. The awards were dominated by the US TV series Hatfields and McCoys, Homeland, and Game Change.

Subscribe to 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

Emmy Awards 2012 - pictures

3. TERRY QUITS ENGLAND AHEAD OF FA INQUIRY

Former England captain John Terry announced last night that he is retiring from international football, releasing a statement just hours before a Football Association hearing into claims he racially abused an opponent is due to begin. He said that by pursuing the charges after he was acquitted in court the FA "have made my position with the national team untenable".

Little sympathy as John Terry quits England and blames FA

4. PM BACKS MITCHELL. BUT DID HE SAY 'PLEB'?

Tory Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell, speaking for the first time on camera after last week's row with police guards who stopped him riding through a gate at Downing Street, has apologised and said he "did not use the words attributed to me". However, he would not say if he called the police officers "plebs". David Cameron has given him his backing.

Gategate: Andrew Mitchell fails to deny calling police ‘plebs’

5. US SLAMS PAKISTAN BOUNTY ON FILM MAKER

The US State Department yesterday condemned Pakistani railways minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour's offer of $100,000 for the death of the American maker of the anti-Islam film Innocence of Muslims, which has sparked riots worldwide and was denounced by the White House as "disgusting and reprehensible". The bounty, it says, is "inflammatory and inappropriate".

6. SCHOOLGIRL ELOPES WITH TEACHER

Megan Stammers, the missing 15-year-old schoolgirl from Eastbourne, Sussex, was last night believed to be on the run in France after eloping with maths teacher Jeremy Forrest, 30, of the Bishop Bell CofE School. Megan was reported missing on Friday and later spotted on a cross channel ferry. The return tickets to France have now expired.

Teacher who 'ran off with school girl' wrote about 'moral dilemma'

7. BRITAIN BRACED FOR MORE RAIN

Britain is braced for more wild weather and the environment agency has issued more than 130 flood alerts in England and Wales as wind and rain continue to batter the country. The storms, caused by an offshoot of Hurricane Nadine, have killed three people and caused travel chaos in some places.

UK weather: more storms expected as three killed in high winds

8. WASHINGTON ZOO'S GIANT PANDA CUB DIES

The week-old giant panda cub at Washington DC's National Zoo has died, it was reported yesterday, with the cause not immediately apparent. Zookeepers were alerted when the cub's mother, Mei Xiang, was heard making sounds of distress, but attempts to revive the tiny 3.5oz cub failed. Staff said they were "broken-hearted".

9. PATIENT WITH SARS-LIKE VIRUS IN UK

A man is being treated in a London hospital for a disease similar to the SARS virus, which killed hundreds of people in 2003 and sparked fears of a pandemic. The 49-year-old patient was brought to the UK from Qatar by air ambulance. He is the second person to be diagnosed with the new disease; the first, who is now dead, was in Saudi Arabia. It is not yet known whether the two cases are linked.

SARS-type virus confirmed in man being treated in UK

10. HOT TICKET: BARBICAN'S PHOTOS OF CHANGE

A major exhibition of photography capturing social change in the 1960s and 70s has opened at London's Barbican. 'Everything Was Moving' features over 400 works by 12 renowned photographers, including Bruce Davidson, William Eggleston, Sigmar Polke, David Goldblatt and Ernest Cole. "Visionary and utterly engrossing," says The Daily Telegraph. Until 13 January.

Everything Was Moving: Barbican's photographs from an exploding world