Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Wednesday 16 Feb 2011

published 16 February 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. IRAQI DEFECTOR LIED ABOUT WMDRafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, the Iraqi defector who convinced western intelligence services that Iraq had a secret biological weapons programme, has admitted to the Guardian that he lied about his story, and then watched in shock as the White House used his fake testimony to justify the 2003 invasion (above). Janabi said that he fabricated stories of mobile bio-weapons trucks and secret WMD factories in an attempt to bring down the Saddam Hussein regime. UK unemployment rises againUnemployment in the UK has climbed again, rising by 44,000 to 2.5 million in the three months to December, according to the Office for National Statisics. Unemployment now stands at 7.9 per cent in the population as a whole, with one in five 16 to 24-year-olds out of work. Employment minister Chris Grayling tried to put a positive spin on the figures, saying: "The evidence is over the past month things have settled down and we are not seeing the increases we saw earlier in the last quarter." Benefit claimant count rises Bahrain minister says killings 'catastrophic'Anti-government protests continued today in Yemen, Bahrain and Libya. A demonstration in the Libyan city of Benghazi turned into a riot with crowds pelting riot police with petrol bombs after the arrest of a lawyer said to be an outspoken critic of Col Gaddafi's regime. Meanwhile, the foreign minister of Bahrain has admitted to the New York Times that the killing of two protesters this week was "catastrophic" and Iran has arrested more students following Monday's anti-government protests. CBS REPORTER SEXUALLY ASSAULTED BY CAIRO MOB Lara Logan, a CBS News correspondent, is recovering in hospital in the US after being beaten and sexually assaulted by a mob of Egyptians in the immediate aftermath of Friday's announcement that President Mubarak was standing down. CBS says Logan, 39, became separated from her crew and suffered "a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating" from a mob of 200 people "whipped into a frenzy" by the news. CBS reporter Lara Logan sexually assaulted in Egypt TAKE THAT AND TINIE TEMPAH WIN BRIT AWARDS Veteran boy band Take That won best British group and new boy Tinie Tempah won best British breakthrough act and best single (for Pass Out) at last night's Brit awards. Mumford & Sons won best British album for Sigh No More. In the international categories, Justin Bieber won best breakthrough act, having lost out at the Grammys on Sunday. Rihanna was best female solo artist. Johnny Dee on the stitch-up that is the Brits INFLATION AT 4% MAKES RATE RISE LIKELYHigher interest rates in the near future look inevitable following yesterday's official figures showing UK inflation running at a two-year high of four per cent - double the Bank of England target. The Bank is likely to pave the way for a rate hike when it issues its Inflation Report today. The Monetary Policy Committee "has no choice but to establish its credibility by sounding hawkish," said Amit Kara, economist at UBS. AHMADINEJAD VOWS TO PUNISH PROTEST LEADERS Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the organisers of Monday's anti-regime protests of wanting "to tarnish the Iranian nation's brilliance" and added: "They knew that they would get nowhere." Two people were killed and many injured when riot police and state-backed basiji militia fought the protesters with tear gas and batons. With the White House continuing to support the protesters, Ahmadinejad has vowed to punish the organisers. US backing puts arrested Iranians in jeopardy BERLUSCONI BRUSHES OFF VICE CHARGEItalian prime minster Silvio Berlusconi says he is unconcerned about his forthcoming trial on charges that he paid an underage prostitute for sex. He told a news conference: "For love of country I won't talk about it. Suffice it to say that I am not worried in the least." However, he now faces yet more allegations of impropriety after claims that he frequently entertained young women at a castle he rented last summer near Rome. Allies and foes turn on Berlusconi WILLIAM AND KATE TO VISIT CANADAPrince William and Princess Katherine, as she will be known by then, will make their first official overseas trip as a married couple to Canada in June, it has been announced. The newlyweds will visit Alberta, the Northwest Territories, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and the capital, Ottawa, during their nine-day visit in July. Canada's prime minister Stephen Harper invited the couple soon after their engagement in November. EGYPT'S NEW LEADER 'WAS AGAINST REFORM'Leaked US embassy cables from the 2008 published by the Daily Telegraph in partnership with WikiLeaks show that Field Marshal Mohamad Tantawi, 76, head of the Higher Military Council that took control of Egypt when President Mubarak stood down on Friday, used to oppose political reform because he believed that it "eroded central government power". He was also against economic reforms because they create "social instability".