Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Tuesday 18 Jan 2011

Our popular news catch-up service is posted Monday to Friday at 8.0 am. You can rely on it to keep you up to date through the working day with the main news talking points. STEVE JOBS ABSENCE AFFECTS APPLEApple shares fell almost six per cent in early trading on the Nasdaq following yesterday's news that CEO Steve Jobs (above) is to take medical leave and hand over day-to-day operations to COO Tim Cook. The fall comes ahead of tonight's announcement of Apple's first quarter results. When Jobs took a similar leave of absence for cancer treatment in 2009, the stock was briefly suspended after falling 10 per cent. Apple shares plummet as Steve Jobs takes sick leave 'fawning' piers morgan makes cnn debutPiers Morgan received mixed notices for his debut performance at CNN, where he has replaced the veteran interviewer Larry King. Oprah Winfrey was his first guest. The Philadelphia Inquirer called him "high-energy, enthusiastic, effusive, playful, fascinated". The Boston Globe said he was "by turns charming, vain, well informed, and fawning - but mostly just fawning". The Washington Post called it "a fawning and completely unnecessary interview". PHONE HACKING: ROGUE REPORTER DEFENCE 'UNRAVELS'News Corp's defence that phone hacking at the News of the World was the work of a single "rogue reporter" who hired the services of a private detective, Glenn Mulcaire, to carry out the work, has been disputed by Mulcaire himself, according to the Guardian. The private eye is said to have submitted a statement to the High Court yesterday confirming that Ian Edmondson, the paper's assistant editor (news), asked him to hack into voicemail messages. BERLUSCONI 'USED A NUMBER OF PROSTITUTES'Milan prosecutors say they have evidence that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had sex with a number of prostitutes. They have handed in a dossier to the Italian parliament in a bid for authorisation to search for further evidence of payments to prostitutes at the offices of his accountant Giuseppe Spinelli, currently protected by parliamentary immunity. Berlusconi did pay for sex, say Milan prosecutors RICKY GERVAIS BANS 'UTTER RUBBISH'A spokesman for Ricky Gervais said reports that he had been blacklisted by Hollywood following his risque jokes at the Golden Globe awards on Sunday were "utter rubbish". The comedian said: "Everyone took it well and the atmosphere backstage and at the after show was great." However, he does not expect to be invited back a third time. Gervais upsets Hollywood celebs at Golden Globes PLEASE END OUR TORMENT, PLEAD YEATES'S PARENTS David and Teresa Yeates have urged anyone who might be shielding the killer of their daughter Joanna to come forward. Holding back information was prolonging the family's torment and could allow the killer to strike again, they said. They asked the public to consider whether anyone they knew had surprised them with their reaction to the murder. Twitter turns on the Mail's Liz Jones over Jo Yeates INFLATION RISES TO 3.7 PER CENTConsumer prices index (CPI) inflation was 3.7 per cent for December, up from 3.3 per cent for November, according to latest data from the Office for National Statistics released today. This is way above economists' worst predictions and the Bank of England's 2 per cent target. Increases in the price of petrol and utility bills, on top of the growing costs of sugar, cotton and wheat, are to blame. 14 BAFTA nominations for king's speechColin Firth received a Bafta nomination for best actor and The King's Speech was given 13 further nominations when the shortlist was announced this morning. Actor Pete Postlethwaite was nominated for a posthumous supporting actor award for his performance The Town. The Bafta ceremony will be held in London on Feburary 13. Pete Postlethwaite nominated for posthumous Bafta. BBC'S JUSTIN WEBB REVEALS 'SECRET FATHER'The BBC journalist Justin Webb, formerly Washington correspondent and now a Radio 4 Today presenter, has used a Radio Times article to reveal that he is the son of the 1970s newsreader Peter Woods. His late mother Gloria Crocombe had an affair with Woods, a married man, when they were both working on Fleet Street. In 1976, Woods was famously taken off-air in mid-bulletin, apparently drunk. Struggling to make sense of trade figures, he announced they were "an awful lot". Justin Webb reveals secret father - Peter Wood. 'CANOE MAN' JOHN DARWIN FREED FROM JAILJohn Darwin, who faked his death in a canoeing accident off the County Durham coast in March 2002 as part of a £680,000 life insurance fraud, was released from jail in Yorkshire yesterday after serving half of his six-year sentence. His wife Anne, who was part of the subterfuge which involved meeting up with her 'dead' husband in Panama City, still has two months to serve.

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