Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Monday 25 May 2015

1. HUGE MANHUNT AFTER DIDCOT KILLINGS

More than 100 officers have joined a huge manhunt for a man suspected of stabbing to death his six-year-old sister, their mother and her partner. The officers, some of them armed, are combing Didcot, Oxfordshire, for suspect Jed Allen, who has a distinctive spider tattoo on his left hand. The bodies of the victims were found in a house in Vicarage Road, Didcot, on Saturday night.

2. POLICE WARN OF UK CHEMICAL ATTACK

Counterterrorism police are warning there is a “growing threat” of a major chemical weapons attack by British jihadists returning from Iraq and Syria. The Times reports that bombs laced with chlorine, a substance freely available in huge quantities in Britain, have become the “chemical weapons of choice” for Islamic State, according to security experts.

3. EU CITIZENS WON’T VOTE IN POLL

Citizens from most EU countries living in the UK will not get a vote in the referendum on Europe, Downing Street has announced. Eligibility to take part will be the same as that for a general election, rather than local or European Parliament elections. This means Irish, Maltese and Cypriot residents in the UK will get a vote, but other EU citizens will not.

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4. MCCAIN MOCKS OBAMA ON CLIMATE CHANGE

John McCain has attacked Barack Obama for focusing on climate change as ISIS advances in Syria and Iraq. The senator argued that the Obama administration’s focus on environmental issues was detracting from Islamic State. “They’re executing people and leaving their bodies in the streets. Meanwhile the president of the United States is saying that the biggest problem we have is climate change.”

5. GREECE: WE'LL DEFAULT ON PAYMENTS

Greece has warned it will default on €1.6bn (£1.14bn) of debt repayment due on international bailout loans next month, reports The Guardian. Athens claims it does not have sufficient funds to satisfy creditors at the same time as covering wages and pensions. Interior minister, Nikos Voutsis, a long-standing ally of the prime minister, says the country is near to financial collapse.

6. UK TROLL CONVICTIONS SOARING

Conviction rates for internet trolls has increased tenfold in a decade, reports The Independent. Last year, 1,209 people were convicted of sending a "grossly offensive or an indecent, obscene or menacing" message over an electronic communications network. The Daily Mail says that 155 "trolls" were jailed in 2014. The government has increased the maximum sentence for trolling offences to three years, adds the Daily Telegraph.

7. SIR IAN BOTHAM MAY SUE THE RSPB

Sir Ian Botham has threatened to sue the RSPB for libel, saying the charity has accused him of killing protected birds. Sir Ian, a figurehead for You Forgot The Birds, a pressure group that wants the RSPB to concentrate on practical conservation rather than ideological campaigning, has been involved in a long-running dispute with the charity.

8. FAKE CANCER CURES ARE EXPOSED

Cancer victims are being offered “fake cures’” by unscrupulous alternative medicine practitioners, an undercover investigation by the Daily Telegraph has discovered. Experts are calling for a criminal inquiry into the matter, saying claims being made by a number of practitioners appear in breach of laws designed to protect the vulnerable from false claims about cancer.

9. BRUCE: HULL WEREN’T GOOD ENOUGH

Hull boss Steve Bruce admits his side were "not good enough" after being relegated to the Championship. Sam Allardyce claims he planned to leave West Ham United even if the club had offered to renew his contract. Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers says he will leave the club "if the owners want me to go", after the 6-1 defeat at Stoke City meant his side finished sixth in the Premier League.

10. BRIEFING: COULD LIZ KENDALL LEAD LABOUR?

Although she asks not to be labeled a 'Blairite' candidate, preferring to be known as a 'moderniser', the media are unlikely to grant her that wish: she has made it very clear that Labour needs to return to the centre ground advocated by Tony Blair and the team that won three general elections in 1997, 2001 and 2005.

Liz Kendall: the would-be Labour leader who's happiest when dancing