Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Tuesday 27 Nov 2012

An elderly woman has been found dead in a flooded home in the North Wales city of St Asaph, which has been evacuated after the River Elwy burst its banks. The woman is the fourth person to die in a week of floods across the country. Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said it was unfair to criticise the coalition for cutting flood defence schemes given the economic situation.

The internet is now "the most dangerous facilitator of totalitarianism we have ever seen", according to Julian Assange. The WikiLeaks editor warns in his new book 'Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the internet' of an impending "postmodern surveillance dystopia" which only the most skilled individuals will be able to escape.

Mark Carney, the next Governor of the Bank of England, was tempted with an annual pay package worth £624,000 a year – a 50 per cent increase on his renumeration at the Bank of Canada. Carney's appointment has been welcomed by the financial press. "An inspired and eloquent choice which marks a clean break with the failings of the past," said the Telegraph.

Angus Jones, the 19-year-old actor who has played the teenager in the US comedy series 'Two and a Half Men' since he was 10, has denounced the show as "filth", and urged viewers to stop watching it. He says the show, which once starred Charlie Sheen, conflicts with the bible studies he now enjoys with a Californian-based Christian group.

Chris Preece, 54, a British engineer who had "fallen in love" with South Africa, was hacked to death with machetes by thieves in the kitchen of his Fleur de Lis farm at Ficksburg, near the Lesotho border. The three attackers stole £210 and a mobile phone. His wife Felicity was also attacked, but survived. It was the latest in a spate of farm attacks.