Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Friday 7 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. DAVID CHAYTOR JAILED FOR EXPENSES FRAUD David Chaytor today became the first MP to be jailed over the expenses scandal. The former Labour member for Bury North (above, foreground), who admitted three charges of false accounting involving a total of £18,350, was given an 18-month sentence at the Old Bailey. One charge related to money claimed for renting a flat in Westminster. The rent was paid to his daughter – but the flat was owned by Chaytor and his wife. Expenses fraud: ex-MP Chaytor gets 18 months ENGLAND SEAL HISTORIC 3-1 ASHES VICTORYAs predicted, England took the final three wickets needed for an innings victory in the fifth Test at Sydney and finish 3-1 series winners - their first Ashes victory Down Under in 24 years. The Australians were all out for 281, giving England victory by an innings and 83 runs. The local press are asking readers whether this was the worst Australian XI ever. Most respondents have answered Yes. England celebrate 3-1 series win Crikey! Oz cricketers take nasty kicking from media JO YEATES MURDER: HUNT TURNS TO FACEBOOK Bristol landscape architect Jo Yeates, last seen alive three weeks ago today, was possibly murdered by a Facebook 'friend' who became infatuated with her. According to the Daily Mail, that's the latest theory being examined by police, who are now attempting to trace many of the 200 friends listed on her Facebook profile. Police "flatly reject" suggestions they are struggling with the inquiry, says the Mail. Jo Yeates: did her killer also strike 36 years ago? Jo Yeates landlord may sue police and media ASSANGE SIGNS UK BOOK DEAL Julian Assange has signed a book deal with British publisher Canongate, the Wikileaks founder has confirmed. Rights to the book, which Assange says he hopes will be “one of the unifying documents of our generation”, have already been sold on in 10 countries, including the US, where it will be published by Alfred A Knopf. Assange is currently on bail in the UK facing extradition to Sweden over sexual assault charges, which he denies. ROBERT DE NIRO TO HEAD CANNES JURYRobert De Niro says he is honoured to be invited to head the jury at Cannes this May - "one of the oldest and one of the best" film festivals in the world. As an actor, De Niro, 67, has attended the festival eight times over the years. Taxi Driver won the Palme d'Or in 1976 and The Mission followed suit in 1986. Can we all forget Little Fockers in time for Cannes? BANK BONUSES: NOTHING GOVERNMENT CAN DODespite promising robust action to curb their excesses, the coalition government is now resigned to British banks paying out billions in the upcoming bonus round, according to BBC business editor Robert Peston. A senior banker told Peston there "could be more spin than substance" in any promises the banks make to reduce bonuses. OBAMA MAKES WILLIAM DALEY NEW CHIEF OF STAFF President Obama has given the White House a new, moderate look with the appointment of William Daley, a banker at JP Morgan Chase, as chief of staff to replace Rahm Emanuel. Daley is a fellow Chicagoan - his brother Richard is the Windy City's mayor - but to the right of Obama in terms of Democratic policy. "Either we plot a more moderate, centrist course, or risk electoral disaster," he wrote in the Washington Post last year. Alexander Cockburn: Rahm Emanuel, the dud svengali MICHAEL CAINE ACCEPTS 'WRONG' HONOURThere was embarrassment in Paris yesterday when the veteran actor Michael Caine received an honour from French Culture Minister Frédéric Mitterrand. "I had always thought you had to have a French wife to get the Légion d'Honneur but it turns out you don't," Caine told Mitterrand, after having the medal hung around his neck. But it wasn't the Legion d'Honneur - it was the lesser Order of Arts and Letters. 14-YEAR-OLDS TO GET VOCATIONAL OPTIONDozens of new technical and vocational schools are to be opened in Britain, enabling children at 14 to opt out of academic training and begin learning a trade instead, according to the Times. Former Tory Education Secretary Kenneth Baker is behind the idea. He says they will be modeled on the technical schools whose demise in the 1950s he blamed on "snobbery". JAMES CAAN 'TO QUIT' DRAGON'S DENThe BBC is expected to announce that James Caan, the Pakistan-born self-made millionaire, will not appear again on Dragon's Den, according to the Daily Mail. There are two factors: his continuing row with fellow judge Duncan Bannatyne (the two men have not spoken for nine months) and the episode last autumn where he was filmed by ITV offering to buy a baby from a family suffering in the aftermath of the floods.

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