Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Wednesday 21 May 2014

      
   
       CHARLES ‘COMPARES PUTIN TO HITLER’      Prince Charles has compared Russian actions in Ukraine to those of Nazi Germans, say reports. A woman who fled the Nazis during the Second World War says the Prince of Wales told her that “Putin is doing some of the same things that Hitler was doing”. Marienne Ferguson met the Prince during a visit to a museum in Nova Scotia. Clarence House said it would not comment on the private conversation.       
 
     
   
       PLEBGATE OFFICER’S ‘TOPPLING TEXT’      One of the police officers involved in the ‘Plebgate’ incident sent a text message which boasted of “toppling the Tory government”, it is claimed. Former minister Andrew Mitchell says the text was revealed in a private internal disciplinary hearing at Scotland Yard. The MP said he is making the information public to vindicate his claims he was the victim of a political plot.      
 
     
   
       OSBORNE: UKIP THREATENS ECONOMY      Britain’s open, free-market economy is under threat from the rise of Ukip, says George Osborne. The chancellor will tell the CBI that business leaders must speak up for the free market and free trade. Otherwise, he will warn, the country will slide into an “anti-business” era of regulation, trade barriers, and high taxation.       
 
     
   
       WAS LED ZEP'S STAIRWAY RIFF STOLEN?      An American lawyer is preparing to sue Led Zeppelin, alleging that the introduction to Stairway To Heaven was stolen from Randy California. Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page has always been considered the composer of the song, which has earned more than half a billion dollars in royalties.      
 
     
   
       LLOYDS CAPS LARGE HOME LOANS      Lloyds has banned home loans of more than four times a borrower’s income, reports The Times. In an effort to stave off rising house prices, Britain’s biggest mortgage lender made the move to pre-empt an expected crackdown by regulators. Lloyds is responsible for one in five mortgages and has often lent five times incomes and sometimes more.      
 
     
   
       TWIN BOMB ATTACKS HIT NIGERIA      The Nigerian president has condemned bombings in the central city of Jos, in which at least 118 people were killed. Goodluck Jonathan described the attackers as “cruel and evil”. The country has been enduring a prolonged terror campaign by the Boko Haram Islamist group. Last month the group abducted 200 girls from a boarding school.        Boko Haram kidnap: rescue efforts intensify in Nigeria       
 
     
   
       WH SMITH VOTED ‘WORST HIGH ST STORE’      WH Smith has been voted the worst retailer on the high street. In its second consecutive year at the bottom of the poll, the stationary chain has been condemned as "dated, cluttered, crowded and not well stocked". WH Smith, which was founded in 1792, is a stalwart of the British high street, with 1,288 outlets.      
 
     
   
       NEW STUDY ON POST-NATAL DEPRESSION        Mothers are most likely to suffer from baby blues four years after giving birth, says a new study. The research found that four years after birth mothers were twice as likely to be depressed as they were during the first 12 months of motherhood, the period usually associated with post-natal depression. The study blames relationship problems, which lead to emotional vulnerability.      
 
     
   
       ROYAL MAIL TO TEST SUNDAY DELIVERY      Royal Mail is to test a Sunday delivery service for parcels as demand for goods ordered online continues to rise. Later this year it will open 100 delivery offices on Sundays for customers to collect parcels and also trial seven-day parcel deliveries to addresses within the M25. The express delivery service, Parcelforce Worldwide, will also try out a Sunday service across the country.      
 
     
   
       HOT TICKET: NICK PAYNE'S INCOGNITO      Nick Payne's new play, Incognito, has opened at the Bush Theatre, London. Payne weaves fact and fiction into three stories about identity and memory, from a man with no past to a scientist who steals Albert Einstein brain. "Astonishing," says the Daily Telegraph. Until 21 June.