Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Monday 30 Mar 2015

1. LABOUR: TORY WIN ‘BAD FOR BUSINESS’

Ed Miliband is launching Labour’s business manifesto today, telling business leaders that a Conservative victory would mean two years of in-fighting as the party got ready for an EU referendum, playing havoc with business. David Cameron will say today a Labour government would mean “economic chaos”.

2. ELECTION OUTCOME ‘MAY STRAIN UK UNITY’

Sir Gus O’Donnell, former head of the civil service and the man who oversaw the 2010 coalition negotiations, has warned that another hung parliament could put the Union under strain. Scotland's SNP is on course to be the third largest party in the Commons, despite being likely to get only 4% of the UK vote.

3. IRAN NUCLEAR TALKS: DEADLINE LOOMS

The last few hours of intensive negotiations before tomorrow’s deadline for a deal with the international community to limit Iran’s nuclear ambitions are taking place in Switzerland today. Ministers from the US, Germany, France, the UK, China and Russia are meeting the Iranian foreign minister in Lausanne.

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4. ALPS CRASH PILOT: ‘OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!’

More details have emerged of the last eight minutes of the Germanwings flight which appears to have been deliberately crashed into the French Alps by its co-pilot last week, resulting in 150 deaths. Locked out of the cockpit, the pilot repeatedly shouted “Open the damn door!” and used an axe to try to break in.

Woman convicted of fraud after posing as Germanwings crash relative

5. FRENCH ELECTIONS: CONSERVATIVE SURGE

The final round of France’s local elections has been a triumph for Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP, exit polls suggest. The conservatives will control at least 65 local councils, up from 41. Francois Hollande’s ruling socialists, and their allies, will lose around 30. The Front National have won seats, but no councils.

6. KATIE HOPKINS: RACE HATE ACCUSATION

Labour MP Simon Danczuk has reported Sun columnist and former reality TV star Katie Hopkins to the police for race hate crimes after she allegedly equated men of Pakistani origin with child abusers in a series of Twitter messages. Danczuk is the MP for Rochdale, where a gang of men abused teenage girls.

7. SFO FINED £180,000 FOR DATA BREACH

The Serious Fraud Office has been fined £180,000 for accidentally sending thousands of confidential documents from a high-profile bribery case to a witness in the case, an investigation of a BAE Systems deal. The Information Commissioner, who imposed the fine, said it was an “astounding” lapse.

8. PARENTS ‘RARELY SPOT CHILD OBESITY’

Parents rarely notice when their children are obese, researchers based in London have warned - and this leads to damage to the children’s health as they grow older. In a study of 2,976 families, only four parents said their child was very overweight. Medical found actually 369 children in the study were obese.

Parents rarely spot child obesity

9. STEPS SINGER IAN ‘H’ WATKINS: ART CAREER

Ian ‘H’ Watkins, known by the middle initial when he was a member of 1990s pop group Steps, has launched a new career as a painter. The 38-year-old went to art school before his singing and dancing found fame. He is exhibiting a series of more than 30 landscape paintings in Conwy, Wales, on Sunday.

10. BRIEFING: PREVIOUS PILOT SUICIDE

In 1999, EgyptAir flight 990 ditched into the sea 30 minutes after it took off from New York, killing all 217 people on board. According to the US authorities, the cause of the crash was a deliberate act by the co-pilot. So are there parallels to be drawn between the EgyptAir flight and the Germanwings crash?

Germanwings crash: what are the parallels with EgyptAir 990?