Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Monday 21 Mar 2011
Our popular news catch-up service is posted Monday to Friday at 8.00 am. You can rely on it to keep you up to date through the working day with the main news talking points. COLONEL GADDAFI'S COMPOUND HITJournalists in Libya have been shown a wrecked building in despot Colonel Gaddafi's compound which US officials say was a command centre. They said Gaddafi himself had not been targeted. Meanwhile, US defence secretary Robert Gates says he plans to hand over the leading role in the mission to a Franco-British coalition within "days". Everyone’s going wobbly over Libya ‘mission creep’ Libya: Italians fear Gaddafi revenge attack JAPAN SURVIVORS FOUND AFTER NINE DAYSA grandmother and her grandson have been winched alive from the wreckage of their home nine days after the Japanese earthquake reduced it to rubble. Sixteen-year-old Jin Abe and his 80-year-old grandmother Sumi survived freezing temperatures and a snowstorm by eating scraps of food and yogurt from their damaged refrigerator. Fukushima workers on kamikaze mission WYCLEF JEAN SHOT IN HAITIHip hop star Wyclef Jean said yesterday he was shot in the hand as he campaigned in Haiti for presidential candidate Michel 'Sweet Mickey' Martelly. Jean was travelling in a car in Port-Au-Prince with rapper Buster Rhymes when it came under fire from an unknown source. Jean was later pictured voting with a large bandage. YEMEN army commanders call on president to goFive Yemeni army commanders have declared their support for democracy protesters who want the country's president of 32 years, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to resign. Major General Ali Mohsen Saleh said today he had deployed army units to protect protesters, 52 of whom were killed on Friday by snipers. Several government ministers resigned after the massacre and yesterday the president fired his entire cabinet. DUTCH PROSTITUTES FACE TAX CRACKDOWNProstitutes in Amsterdam's red light district are to be pursued for the average 33 per cent taxes they owe as self-employed business women. Traditionally, sex workers have been treated more leniently by Holland's tax service, but the decision has been made to crack down on a trade which is worth an estimated 625m Euros per annum. Google accuses China of hacking GmailGoogle has accused China of disrupting its Gmail service. Chinese users have been complaining for the past month of problems including failure to send emails and search inboxes. The glitches have coincided with a new crackdown on internet freedom by authorities worried by anonymous online calls for a 'Jasmine Revolution'. SOMERSET TO KEEP 53,000 ROMAN COINSThe Frome Hoard, the largest collection of Roman coins ever unearthed, is to stay in the county where it was found after the Museum of Somerset raised £320,250. The 53,000 1,700-year-old coins were unearthed by metal detectorist Dave Crisp last year. Weighing 160kg they are thought to have been an offering to local gods. POLAR BEAR KNUT DIES AMID CONTROVERSYKnut, the star of Berlin Zoo, has died at the age of four - way short of the normal life expectancy of a polar bear, which is closer to 30 years. The animal rights group Peta has complained that the zoo allowed Knut to be "terrorised" by the three female polar bears with whom he shared his enclosure. Knut's death could have been avoided, says Peta FLAMING TORCH EXPERIMENT IS A SUCCESSAn attempt to recreate the use of flaming torches by Iron Age humans to signal to each other between remote hilltops has been a success. Investigators were able to spot each other on top of hill forts in the Clwydian Range in Wales, Halkyn Mountain, near Holywell, a fort in the Wirral and the Sandstone Ridge in Cheshire. DRINK drive limit held at current levelTransport secretary Philip Hammond has ignored advice to slash the drink driving limit from 80mg per 100ml of blood to 50mg - the level common on the Continent. Owners of country pubs and restaurants had feared a reduction would hit their livelihoods. However, there will be tougher enforcement to target drivers who are well over the limit and new legislation to target 'drug driving'.
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