Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Monday 23 May 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. ICELAND VOLCANO ERUPTION CLOSES AIRPORT Iceland last night closed its international airport after its most active volcano, Grimsvotn, began erupting. A plume of smoke and ash rose 12 miles into the sky. Iceland's Meteorological Office says the eruption should not cause widespread disruption to air traffic, as happened last year, because of more favourable wind conditions. Icelandic volcano ash could reach UK by tomorrow Pic of the day: Grimsvotn volcanic ash cloud 'O'BAMA' VISITs his IRISH ROOTSPresident Obama (above) has arrived in Ireland today on the first leg of a European trip that includes tomorrow's state visit to Britain. In Moneygall, which has a population of 300 and is home to his maternal great-great-great-grandfather, he has been welcomed by the Irish as 'President O'Bama'. In London he will set up a joint US/UK security agency. With the capital in lockdown, even the presidential armoured Cadillac has been shipped in. The Mole: Obama bounces into UK on post-Bin Laden high SCORES DEAD IN MISSOURI TORNADOAt least 89 people have been killed after a tornado ripped through the US city of Joplin in Missouri, and the death toll is expected to rise as the clean-up operation begins. The twister cut a path six miles long and half-a-mile wide through the midwestern city, and flattened most of the south side. Other cities in the region have also been hit by storms and least one person has died in Minneapolis. injunction FOOTBALLER is RYAN GIggs, says MPRyan Giggs has been named as the footballer, 'CTB', who took out an injunction to suppress a newspaper report about an alleged affair. Lib Dem MP John Hemming used parliamentary privilege to break the injunction - and also revealed the Times's Giles Coren was the journalist facing legal action after naming another footballer with an injunction, 'TSE'. Earlier, the Sun had failed to overturn Giggs's injunction in court. Ryan Giggs: the name of injunction footballer CTB Even Cameron knows who injunction footballer is Sunday Herald names affair injunction footballer CTB LORD HURD'S DAUGHTER-IN-LAW IN NEW YORK DEATH FALLCatherine Hurd, 46-year-old daughter-in-law of former foreign secretary Lord Hurd, died in New York yesterday in a suspected suicide, falling from the fourth floor of her home in Manhattan. The mother of five was married to Thomas Hurd, a Midlle East expert at the United Nations. Police said there was no evidence of foul play. No note was found. 11 dead after aTTACK ON PAKISTAN MILITARY BASE Gunmen were holding hostages late last night after an attack on the Mehran naval aviation base in Karachi, Pakistan, which left at least 11 dead. Fighting went on into the night as the well-armed gunmen held off Pakistani forces and destroyed US-supplied Orion jets with rocket propelled grenades. Chinese military officials were among the hostages. CANNES TRIUMPH FOR MALIcK FILM AND KIRSTEN DUNSTThe Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or yesterday went to Terrence Malick's film The Tree of Life, which stars Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. Publicity-shy Malick did not attend the award ceremony. Kirsten Dunst won best actress for Lars von Trier's Melancholia, despite Von Trier's earlier expulsion from Cannes for saying that he "understood Hitler". BAFTA TV AWARDS FOR SHERLOCK AND ESSEXSherlock took two Bafta TV awards - one for best drama series and one for best supporting actor (Martin Freeman as Dr Watson). Daniel Rigby won best actor as the young Eric Morecambe. The audience award went to the ITV reality show The Only Way is Essex. Newscaster Sir Trevor McDonald was presented with an Academy Fellowship. In pictures: The television Baftas BRITISH FANS BY 2012 TICKETS FROM EU AGENTSBritish sports fans are buying tickets for the London Olympics through agents selling them to other countries in the European Union. One website, officially supplying tickets to the Danish market, has stopped taking orders after a flood of requests from the UK, while a British newspaper bought athletics tickets from an agent in Germany. Under EU law all citizens can apply for tickets in any member country. Princess Beatrice's hat sells for £81,000Princess Beatrice's bizarre royal wedding hat, designed by Philip Treacy, has sold for £81,000 on auction website eBay. The money will be split between Unicef and Children in Crisis. The hat, described variously as an 'octopus' and a 'pretzel', inspired an internet meme when Beatrice wore it to Prince William and Kate's wedding last month.
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