Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Tuesday 11 Jan 2011

published 11 January 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. DOWNING STREET GIVES UP ON BANK BONUSESCity bankers are expected to receive a total of £7bn in bonuses for 2010 - only a fraction down on the £7.3bn they got for 2009 - as the Tory-led coalition gives up on its attempts to curtail the controversial payouts. Although bonus announcements in coming days will infuriate many MPs and members of the public, Downing Street has rejected the idea of renewing last year's one-off tax on bonuses. A spokesman said David Cameron would not "micromanage" the banks. BAN PRIVATE FLU JABS, SAY GPSHealthy people who are not members of one of the at-risk groups should be banned from having flu injections privately because of the current shortage of flu vaccine in Britain. That's the view of the Royal College of GPs. But the Department of Health says it cannot prevent pharmacies from selling the vaccine commercially DOZENS MISSING AS BRISBANE PREPARES FOR FLOODS People living in low-lying areas of Brisbane have been urged to evacuate as the city faces its worst floods in decades. Thousands of homes and businesses are said to be under threat in Australia's third largest city as water levels rise by up to 1.5 metres an hour. Large areas of Queensland are already under water and now flash floods have left nine dead and 70 missing near the state capital. Video: flash flood in Toowoomba In pictures: escape from Brisbane ASSANGE FEARS THE DEATH PENALTYWikiLeaks founder Julian Assange fears he could face the death penalty if he is brought before the US authorities. The claims came as a date was set for a hearing to decide whether he should be extradited from the UK to Sweden to face sexual assault charges. If he is sent to Sweden his defence team say that there is a "real risk" the US would then try and extradite him from there. His case will be heard on February 7 and 8. JO YEATES 'INVITED MALE FRIEND FOR DRINK'A male friend of Jo Yeates has told how the murder victim texted him at 8.20 pm on the night of Friday, December 17 - the last day she was seen alive - to ask if he fancied a drink. Michael Wood, 28, replied an hour later saying that he was tied up at his office Christmas party, and received no reply. "It is horrifying to think that she may have been dead when I texted her," he said. Robert Chesshyre: This is not TV, it's real life SECOND - FEMALE - UNDERCOVER COP EXPOSED Pc Mark Kennedy, who was revealed yesterday to have spent seven years infiltrating the climate change protest movement, is reported to have named another climate change activist as an undercover agent - and this time it's a woman police constable in the frame. The Guardian reports that Kennedy admitted the woman - so far unnamed - had been a fellow police spy when he confessed to activists what he had been up to. How to spot an undercover cop in your midst TEENAGER JAILED FOR THROWING FIRE EXTINGUISHERA teenager who threw a fire extinguisher from the roof of Tory party HQ, narrowly missing a line of police officers, during student protests last year has been jailed for 32 months. Edward Woollard, an 18-year-old sixth former from Hampshire, was part of a group of demonstraters that stormed the seven-story building in November. Judge Geoffrey Rivlin QC told him he was lucky not to have killed or seriously injured anyone. In pictures: students storm Conservative HQ TUCSON KILLER IN COURTDoctors treating US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords say they are "not out of the woods yet" but are greatly encouraged that on day three in intensive care her brain shows no signs of further swelling. The man accused of shooting her, Jared Lee Loughner, appeared in court on Monday wearing leg chains and handcuffs, to hear five charges against him of murder and attempted murder. He is represented by the lawyer Judy Clarke, who defended Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma city bomber. MP ILLSLEY ADMITS EXPENSES FRAUDEric Illsley has become the first sitting MP to be convicted of fiddling his parliamentary expenses after he admitted three counts of false accounting, worth more than £14,000. Illsley, the MP for Barnsley Central, sits as an independent after he was suspended from the Labour party over the charges. He had previously pleaded not guilty but changed his pleas at Southwark Crown Court. Last week former MP David Chaytor was jailed for 18 months for similar offences. Expenses fraud: Chaytor gets 18 months TOO MUCH SCREEN TIME CAN KILL YOUPeople who spend more than four hours a day glued to a TV or computer screen are more than twice as likely to suffer from heart disease and premature death, according to research by University College London. Even two hours a day of screen time is a risk, Dr Emmanuel Stamatakis of the university's Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, tells the Daily Telegraph.