Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Monday 7 Jan 2013

David Cameron and Nick Clegg have insisted the coalition is "steadfast and united" as they marked the halfway point of their government. They announced initiatives including more help on childcare costs, help towards care costs for the elderly and investment in roads and high-speed rail at the "mid-term review". Labour described the event as "another relaunch".

The press regulation campaign group Hacked Off supported by Hugh Grant and other victims of phone hacking has published its own version of a draft bill which it says would implement the recommendations of the Leveson report in full. It would include a tough new regulator, and fines of up to £1 million for media breaking the rules.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has visited Tasmania as firefighters continue to battle bushfires that broke out on Thursday. Hundreds of properties have been damaged or destroyed and some communities remain cut off, but there are no reports of any deaths. There are fears of more blazes as temperatures continue to soar.

The claim by Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in his first public appearance for six months yesterday that the rebel opposition were "western puppets", and that his regime was offering a peace deal with democratic reforms, was immediately derided by the US and Britain. Foreign Secretary William Hague said Assad would "fool no one".

A 20-year-old Briton yesterday plunged more than 300ft to his death over the Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, the Foreign Office confirmed. He had visited the attraction in a group of eight friends who had scrambled over rocks at the top of the falls. A rescue party was last night trying to recover his body.