Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Friday 27 Feb 2015

1. MILIBAND TO UNVEIL TUITION FEE PLAN

Ed Miliband will today announce Labour's election promise to reduce tuition fees. Under the party leader’s plans, the cap on undergraduate fees would be reduced from £9,000 to £6,000 per year. Miliband first expressed an ambition for such a policy in 2011. Chuka Umunna, the minister responsible for it, described the realisation process as "long and tortuous".

2. JIHADI JOHN WIDOW WANTS HIM ‘ALIVE’

The widow of a victim of "Jihadi John" says she wants him caught alive. Dragana Haines says the "last thing" she wants for the ISIS terrorist who killed her husband, British aid worker David Haines, is an "honourable death". However, the daughter of Mr Haines said that only a “bullet between the eyes” of her father’s killer could bring peace to her family.

3. RAIL CHIEF SLAMS ‘SCRAPHEAP’ SERVICE

Britain’s rail chief says it is a “scrapheap” service littered with old equipment covered with graffiti. Chief executive of Network Rail Mark Carne says his firm is the “company that people love to hate”. Speaking to industry leaders he revealed concerns about a “macho culture” and admitted unsafe working practices were causing hundreds of staff casualties every year.

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4. WHEN FARAGE DODGED SARAH PALIN

Ukip leader Nigel Farage has dodged a meeting with Sarah Palin during a visit to the US. However, his speech to a gathering of American right-wingers drew a disappointing crowd. Farage was introduced as a “living, breathing, smoking drinking protest to political correctness”, but only a few hundred of the 8,000 delegates stayed for his speech.

5. OXFORD 'LEAST AFFORDABLE' CITY

Oxford is the most unaffordable place in Britain in which to buy a house, according to new analysis. The property price to earnings ratio in Oxford even outstrips that of London, a university professor has found. The average cost of a house in Oxford in 2014 was £426,720, with the city’s workers earning on average £26,500 a year, compared to a £501,520/£31,950 ratio in the capital.

6. ATHEIST BLOGGER KILLED IN BANGLADESH

A prominent American blogger has been hacked to death in Bangladesh. Atheist writer Avijit Roy was attacked by unidentified, machete-brandishing assailants. His family said he had received numerous threats from Islamists. “He died as he was brought to the hospital. His wife was also seriously wounded. She has lost a finger,” local police chief Sirajul Islam said.

7. LLAMAS ON THE LOOSE IN ARIZONA

A pair of llamas caused havoc in Arizona after rampaging through a retirement village. With television helicopters following the efforts to capture the escaped animals, the story became the talk of Twitter with the hash-tags #LlamasonTheLoose and #LlamaWatch trending on the social network. The animals were eventually caught. It is not known who they belong to.

8. LIVERPOOL & SPURS OUT OF EUROPE

Liverpool and Tottenham were both knocked out of Europe last night. The Reds lost their first European penalty shootout, with centre-back Dejan Lovren missing the crucial spot-kick against Besiktas. Tottenham left the competition after a disaster-ridden 2-0 defeat by Fiorentina gave the Italian side a 3-1 aggregate win.

9. AVERAGE ANIMAL MEMORY IS 27 SECONDS

The average short-term memory span of animals is just 27 seconds, claims a new study which could revolutionise understanding of pets and wildlife. Dogs forget an event within two minutes, claim professors at Stockholm University, while chimpanzees will forget at around 20 seconds. Meanwhile, pig-tailed macaques and squirrel monkeys have memories little longer than bee.

10. BRIEFING: 5G WILL SUPERCHARGE SMARTPHONES

Researchers have set a new speed record for the next generation of wireless data connections, leading to the possibility that 5G devices could connect to the internet at the same speed as fibre-optic cables. That would let people download 30 films in a second.

5G will 'supercharge mobile web' with fibre-optic speeds