Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Thursday 19 Feb 2015

1. FALLON: RUSSIA IS THREAT TO BALTIC

The defence secretary, Michael Fallon, has said that Russia is testing Nato and poses a “real and present danger” to the ex-Soviet Baltic states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Fallon said Nato must be ready for aggression, including the use of irregular troops and cyber attacks. He added: “Nato is getting ready.”

Putin as big a threat to Europe as Islamic State, says Fallon

2. MORE TELEGRAPH WRITERS VOICE FEARS

After the Daily Telegraph’s Peter Oborne resigned in disgust at the paper’s coverage of the HSBC scandal, saying it was watered down as the bank is an advertiser, more than a dozen staff have told the BBC they had similar experiences with sponsors including the Chinese and Russian governments.

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Telegraph hits back at Peter Oborne’s ‘astonishing’ attack

3. BRITISH GAS PROFITS FALL BY 23% TO £439M

Lowering oil prices and warmer weather have caused profits at British Gas’s residential business to fall by 23% to £439m over the past year. Overall, full-year operating profits at owners Centrica were down 35% to £1.75bn. The firm said it was cutting its capital investment in North Sea oil fields by 40%.

4. OBAMA: WE ARE NOT AT WAR WITH ISLAM

Speaking at an international conference on extremism, Barack Obama has said he will not allow an anti-terror agenda to be described as a war against Islam, saying that “people” not religions are responsible. He said that Muslim leaders should “do more” to discredit the narrative that the West is fighting Islam.

5. ECB THROWS GREECE A €3.3BN LIFELINE

The European Central Bank has agreed to grant Greece another €3.3bn in emergency funds. The move comes after the US warned Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis that his country would face “immediate hardship” without a bail-out agreement and told him he must be more constructive in negotiating a deal.

Greece finally reaches deal to release €12bn bailout funds

6. HONG KONG ‘WOLF’ TELLS PEOPLE: BE SHEEP

Hong Kong’s chief executive CY Leung, who has been dubbed ‘The Wolf’ by opponents because of his cunning, used his Chinese New Year’s message to tell citizens they should be more like “mild and gentle” sheep and forget the tensions behind last year’s pro-democracy protests. This is the year of the sheep.

7. PUNISH CHELSEA FANS, SAYS ABUSED MAN

The man who was filmed as he was shoved off a Paris Metro train by a group of English football fans at the weekend has said seeing the video online gave him the confidence to file a police complaint. Named as Souleymane S, the 33-year-old told French media he was not surprised by the racist attack.

Chelsea racist chanting: The Sun names witness

8. ALIEN STAR ‘BUZZED’ OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

Astronomers have discovered that a nearby star, a red dwarf known as Scholz’s star, passed through the outer reaches of our solar system just 70,000 years ago. The star came five times closer than our current nearest neighbour, Proxima Centauri, and was accompanied by a failed star known as a brown dwarf.

9. MIFFED INDIAN BRIDE MARRIES GUEST INSTEAD

A bride in Uttar Pradesh, India, married a wedding guest instead of her intended after the groom, Jugal Kishore, suffered a seizure and collapsed during the ceremony. The Times of India says the man was epileptic but had kept that knowledge from his future wife. A member of her brother-in-law’s family stood in.

10. BRIEFING: MOBILE FINGERPRINT SECURITY

From today, NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland are allowing customers to access their bank accounts online using fingerprint recognition rather than a password. But doubts have been raised about the security of the fingerprint scanners, and some analysts fear that fraud will increase.

How secure are smartphone fingerprint readers?