Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Monday 16 Mar 2015

1. POLICE SPEND 20% OF TIME ON MENTAL HEALTH

Police are spending 20% of their time dealing with mental health issues, even though they are not properly trained, one senior officer has told Sky News. Paul Netherton, assistant chief constable of Devon and Cornwall, says police are having to hold patients in custody cells since post-financial crisis cuts.

2. CYCLONE PAM ‘ENDS VANUATU DEVELOPMENT’

Cyclone Pam has damaged 90% of buildings in South Pacific nation Vanuatu - and has, according to president Baldwin Lonsdale, “wiped out” development there. Speaking in Japan, Londsdale said he had not even been able to confirm his own family was safe. He described the tropical storm as a “monster”.

3. SYRIA-BOUND UK TEENAGERS BAILED

Three British male teenagers who were stopped from travelling to Syria, allegedly to join IS (Islamic State) fighters there, have been released on bail. The two boys of 17 and one man of 19 were arrested on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts. They were stopped in Turkey after a tip-off by British police.

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

4. GRANT SHAPPS UNDER FIRE OVER SECOND JOB

The Conservative Party has admitted its chairman, Grant Shapps, carried on running his web marketing business after he became an MP, something Shapps has several times flatly denied. The Guardian uncovered a summer 2006 sales pitch the MP recorded under a pseudonym, one year after entering parliament.

5. PUTIN EMERGES AFTER 11-DAY ABSENCE

Vladimir Putin has reappeared in public, following more than a week of rumours about his ill health, an alleged coup attempt and speculation about a love child in Switzerland. He kept journalists in St Petersburg waiting for over an hour, but then appeared with Almazbek Atambayev, the president of Kyrgyzstan, to discuss trade and investment.

6. US PROPERTY TYCOON ARRESTED FOR MURDER

Tycoon Robert Durst, 71, whose family ows $4.4bn (£3bn) of real-estate in Manhattan, has been arrested in the US on murder charges after a TV documentary allegedly captured him confessing to three murders over decades, apparently talking to himself in a bathroom forgetting he was wearing a mic.

7. ASTERIX SALE FOR CHARLIE HEBDO VICTIMS

An original 1971 drawing from French comic Asterix has been sold for €150,000 (£106,782), with proceeds going to the families of victims of the Charlie Hebdo shootings. The hand-drawn page carried a special dedication added by artist Albert Uderzo. Auction house Christie’s waived its commission.

8. DOLCE & GABBANA BOYCOTT OVER IVF

Singer Elton John is leading a boycott of fashion label Dolce and Gabbana after the designers, who are both gay, criticised IVF babies and said they opposed gay adoptions. Promising “I shall never wear Dolce and Gabbana ever again” Elton John said the Italians’ thinking was “archaic” and “judgemental”.

9. STONEHENGE WAS ‘MECCA ON STILTS’

A new theory has been put forward to explain the purpose of Stonehenge. Former museum director Julian Spalding claims the megaliths were used to support a huge wooden platform, capable of supporting hundreds of worshippers and rotating to follow the stars. One authority said it was a “possibility”.

10. BRIEFING: RUSSIA AND NORTH KOREA

The leaders of Russia and North Korea have announced a strengthening of economic and political ties, declaring 2015 "a year of friendship". With both nations the targets of international condemnation, and Kim Jong-un scheduled to make a landmark visit to Russia soon, what does this deal mean for the west?

North Korea and Russia's 'year of friendship': what does it mean?