Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Thursday 27 Sep 2012

Britain's current accounts went into the red by a record margin in the second qUarter of 2012, new figures from the Office for National Statistics revealed today. They show a deficit of £20.8bn, the biggest ever for a quarter. The numbers take account of Britain’s weak trade balance and disappointing income from foreign investments.

Judge Michael Pert sentenced burglars Joshua O'Gorman and Daniel Mansell, who were shot and wounded when they raided an isolated Leicestershire farmhouse last month, to four years' jail for burglary at Leicester Crown Court yesterday, saying: "If you burgle a house in the country where the householder owns a legally-held shotgun, that is the chance you take."

Herbert Lom, the Czech-born actor who made his name in Britain playing Peter Sellers’s exasperated boss in the Inspector Clouseau films, has died a few days after his 95th birthday. Until his death, he was the last surviving star of the 1955 comedy caper The Ladykillers, in which he appeared with Sellers and Alec Guinness.

Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling's first book for adults, 'The Casual Vacancy', hits the shops today, with critics surprised by drugs, sex and swearing – "things that Harry Potter never dreamed of" - and the memorable phrase "that miraculously unguarded vagina". The bleak view of small-town life has already earned it the nickname 'Mugglemarch'.

French authorities have revealed they are not "actively seeking" 15-year-old Megan Stammers and Jeremy Forrest, the teacher with whom she has eloped. They pointed out that the age of consent in France is 15. But the couple are on a missing persons list and would be arrested on a European warrant on behalf of British police if spotted.