10 things you need to know this Monday

Never read the Sunday papers? Slept through the Today programme? Forgot to tape the X Factor? Not sure whether you missed the general election? The First Post's new Monday morning service, posted at 8.0 am, is designed to help...

GENOCIDE TRIAL HALTEDThe war crimes trial of Radovan Karadzic, political leader of the Bosnian Serbs during the 1992-95 war, was halted 15 minutes after it began in The Hague this morning. Karadzic, who has insisted on representing himself, boycotted the opening - despite being in custody - claiming he need more time to prepare. The court will reconvene on Tuesday afternoon when Judge O-Gon Kwon will have to decide whether to appoint a lawyer to defend the man accused of ordering the slaughter of 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica. More...BNP REMATCH
Nick Griffin could be invited back on Question Time, despite the controversy still raging over his appearance on the BBC panel show last week, according to Mark Byford, deputy director-general. Speaking on the Andrew Marr show, Byford denied Griffin's appearance had been all about ratings - though the 8m-plus audience was the biggest in the show's 30-year history.

BANKERS' BONUSES
Shadow chancellor George Osborne wants high street banks to be stopped from paying cash bonuses of more than £2,000 this year, and for any "significant" bonuses to be given only in shares. This puts him at odds with Prince Andrew who told the Daily Telegraph on Saturday that bankers should not be demonised and that "bonuses, in the scheme of things, are minute". 'AirMiles Andy' also wants Gordon Brown to keep the loophole that allows non-doms based in London to avoid tax on assets held abroad. More...COLE MEMOIR
Cheryl Cole was so out of her depth when she first found fame with Girls Aloud that she could not recognise anything on restaurant menus, according to a new book published this week as she hits Number One with her first solo single, Fight For This Love. "I remember going to a really posh restaurant - Zilli Fish - with the record company... I had a goat's cheese tartlet because I love cheese and it was the only thing I understood on the menu. It was the vilest thing I'd ever tasted!"

REDS BACK FROM DEAD
Just as their manager Rafa Benitez was looking destined for the chop, and there was talk of star striker Fernando Torres wanting out of a losing team, Liverpool won their crucial Premier League match against Manchester United 2-0 on Saturday. Torres scored in the 65th minute and substitute David Ngog wrapped up a victory that even Man Utd coach Alex Ferguson admitted was deserved. Chelsea now top the league table after beating Blackburn 5-0. More...STRIKE-BOUND
Gordon Brown faces a "winter of discontent" similar to that of 1978 which contributed to the defeat of Labour PM James Callaghan by Margaret Thatcher in May 1979. Talks will be held at the TUC today in a last-ditch attempt to prevent a new three-day strike by postal workers. Also threatening industrial action this winter, according to the Sunday Times, are ground staff at Stansted, cabin crew at British Airways and maintenance workers at Network Rail.

CARR CRASH
Comedian Jimmy Carr has been forced to apologise for offending badly injured service personnel and their families after cracking a black joke at the Manchester Apollo on Friday night. "Say what you like about these servicemen amputees from Iraq and Afghanistan," he said, "but we're going to have a fucking good paralympic team in 2012."

LOCKERBIE INQUIRY
The Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi has apologised for the first time for the killing of WPC Yvonne Fletcher, shot by a burst of automatic fire from within the Libyan embassy in London while she was policing a demonstration in 1984. But Gaddafi claimed Libya still did not know the killer's identity. The apology came during a Sky TV interview as news emerged that Scottish police have begun a new "cold case" inquiry into the 2001 Lockerbie bombing.

BEANOS' BACK
Nick 'Beano' Levene, the financier who disappeared owing money to Stagecoach boss Brian Souter and restaurant tycoon Richard Caring among others, has resurfaced, blaming his recent bankruptcy on a gambling addiction. He has been receiving treatment at the Priory clinic, he told the Mail on Sunday. "I am trying to get myself in order," he said.

AND FINALLY...
The Colorado 'balloon boy' was a hoax. Mayumi Heene, mother of Falcon Heene, the six-year-old thought to have been on board a runaway homemade helium balloon, has admitted to investigators the whole thing was a hoax. She and the boy's father, Richard Heene, acted their parts so well that American news networks cleared their schedules two weeks ago to follow the drama. ·