Iain Duncan Smith: Petition Piles On Pressure

Pressure is mounting on Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith to uphold a claim he made that he could live on just £53 a week in benefits.

In an interview about changes to the welfare system, Mr Duncan Smith suggested he could get by on £53 a week, as one benefit recipient argued they were having to.

"If I had to I would," Mr Duncan Smith told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

The MP is the architect behind controversial reforms that started coming into force this week. He currently has an after-tax income of £1,600 a week.

In the wake of the comment, more than 138,000 people have so far signed a petition on the change.org website, calling for the minister to live up to his claim for a year.

Dom Aversano, who set up the petition, told Sky News that people felt there was "a gigantic gulf" between the lifestyle and wealth of Mr Duncan Smith and other Cabinet members and most of the electorate.

He called on Mr Duncan Smith "to follow his party's mantra of 'we're all in this together'".

He said: "Look at where he is living, the conditions under which he is living.

"He did a brilliant PR exercise before to depict himself as a compassionate Conservative. He's nothing of the sort, he's viciously attacking the most vulnerable and poorest members of society."

Mr Aversano added that the Work and Pensions Secretary had "put himself in this position". "He made the claim and set himself up for this. It's for him to respond," he said.

But Financial Secretary to the Treasury Greg Clarke defended his Tory colleague. He told Sky News: "All of Iain's reforms and all of the work he does as a constituency MP is to help people, to help people get back on the ladder and to improve their prospects."

According to the petition, reducing Mr Duncan Smith's income to £53 a week would be a 97% drop in his current budget. The Cabinet minister, who lives in a £2m mansion that he inherited from his father-in-law, would need to get by on just £7.57 a day.

Angry comments have been left by some of those who signed the petition. One woman wrote: "Multimillionaires telling the very poor how easy it is to survive on such a limited income need to put their oodles of money where their mouth is."

The Government insists its benefits shake-up, which includes a so called "bedroom tax" on social housing tenants with spare rooms, cuts to council tax benefit funding and a weekly cap on household benefits, is all about "fairness".

It says the current system is "broken", with people who work hard being penalised, and that Britain could no longer afford to reward people who "do the wrong thing".

If Mr Duncan Smith went ahead with the challenge, he would not be the first Conservative MP to attempt to live off benefits.

Former Tory politician turned journalist Matthew Parris took part in a documentary in the 1980s requiring him to survive on social security payments of £26.80 a week. He repeated the experiment 20 years later in a TV programme called For the Benefit of Mr Parris Revisited.

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Teen Dies After 'Shots Fired' In London

A 19-year-old man has died after he was found collapsed in the street in north London with gunshot wounds.

The teenager was pronounced dead after emergency services were called to Bounces Road, Edmonton at around 9.45pm on Monday.

Witness Alexandra Koohi said she heard shouting and then around an hour later shots were fired.

She said: "I heard lots of shouting outside the kebab shop, then an hour later I was in my bedroom and I heard two shots.

"I looked out of my window and the guy was lying on the floor and there was blood everywhere."

She said he had been shot twice in the chest and that she and a neighbour ran to try to help him.

The 21-year-old, who is Hungarian, said: "It's a shocking incident, it's scary to think this kind of thing can happen in your neighbourhood."

She saw three men running away after the shooting.

The victim's family has been told.

Scotland Yard said formal identification and a post-mortem will take place in the coming days.

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Windermere: Dead Mother And Daughter Named

Police have named a mother and daughter who died from suspected gas poisoning on a boat trip on Windermere.

Kelly Webster, 36, and her daughter Lauren Thornton, 10,  from Leyland in Lancashire, fell asleep after eating their lunch on board the boat during an Easter holiday trip.

They were regular visitors to the area along with Mrs Webster's partner, Matthew Eteson, who owned the boat, and had arrived at the lake on Easter Sunday.

The boat was moored at Bowness when the family suffered breathing problems

On Monday, the three took the boat out and moored at Bowness before going to get some lunch then returning to eat it and falling asleep.

Cumbria Police said that "all signs" indicated that carbon monoxide poisoning was responsible for the deaths and said they were looking at a potential fault with the boat's engine.

Paramedics tried to save the pair and they were air lifted to Royal Lancaster Infirmary, but died in the hospital.

Emergency services at the scene (Pic: Josh Kynaston)

Mrs Webster's partner, Matthew Eteson, 39, who is the director of Preston Energi, a heating and plumbing company, was taken to hospital where he is continuing to receive treatment.

Becky Johnson, Sky's North of England Correspondent, said: "They are looking at a generator that had been added to the engine of the boat. That's what's being inspected at the moment.

"They are getting specialists in boat design to have a look because this is something that has been added recently to the craft. It could potentially be that that had a fault."

Tributes to the family have been paid on Facebook.

The family were airlifted to hospital (Pic: Josh Kynaston)

David Hampson posted: "Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Matt, Kelly and Lauren, what a tragedy, they had such happy plans for their future together.

"To think a £20.00 CO monitor would have saved their lives. I WILL buy one today."

Ross Bullough wrote: "God bless Kelly and Lauren, rest in peace such a shame. And Matt we are all hoping you get better soon."

The scene of the tragedy

Josh Kynaston, who witnessed the incident, said emergency crews had spent some time trying to locate the boat on the jetty.

He said: "They were trying to find the problem boat. Once they had found it, all the medics were out, all the fire brigade, all the police and they were trying to get to them as soon as possible because they knew straight away what what up, that they knew there was a problem with some gas leakage.

"Straight away they were dragging them out to the jetty because they couldn't operate on them on the boat and then they were trying to sort them out as quickly as possible.

"The helicopter had to keep doing consecutive trips and they were immediately sending them off as quickly as possible because they knew it was fatal."

Other eyewitnesses said they saw firefighters entering the boat wearing breathing masks.

The incident was witnessed by businessman and star of the television programme The Dragon's Den, Duncan Bannatyne, who posted a photograph of the scene on Twitter, saying: "Tragic accident over there I am afraid."

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Weather: Jet Stream Blamed For UK Cold Snap

As Britain leaves behind what looks to have been the coldest March for more than 50 years, forecasters are warning it will stay cold for another week at least.

Meteorologists are blaming the bad weather on the position of the jet stream, a narrow band of very strong winds which tends to move from west to east across the Atlantic, bringing our weather systems with it.

Sky News weather presenter Isobel Lang said: "The jet stream is currently displaced well to the south of its usual position across the north Atlantic and Europe, located across the Azores, Spain and the Mediterranean.

"So the UK will remain stuck in the cold air to the north and it's set to stay cold for at least another week.

"Daytime highs during this first week of April will remain well below average (9C to 11C for early April) and as the easterly wind strengthens again it will feel bitterly cold. Some snow is still likely, too."

The jet stream is a band of strong winds at around 30,000 feet

However, she said that next week temperatures will start to pick up by several degrees.

"It is still a way off yet in terms of detail but the trend is there for something a little warmer with highs around the average, or even a little above. This is no April fool..."

The position of a jet stream varies within the natural fluctuations of the environment. They are caused by the temperature difference between tropical air masses around the equator and and polar air masses.

Experts argue about why the jet stream is out of position, but it could be caused by a combination of the reduction in Arctic sea ice over the last few decades, climate change, solar activity and natural variability within the climate.

The Met Office says the average temperatures between March 1 and 26 were just 2.5C (36.5F), three degrees below the long-term average.

This would make it the coldest March since 1962 and also the fourth coldest in the UK since records began in 1910.

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David Miliband Quits Sunderland Over Di Canio

Sunderland's Hero Or Fascist Zero?

Updated: 11:21am UK, Monday 01 April 2013

By Matt Teale, Sky News Sports Presenter

So, Paolo Di Canio, not Martin O'Neill, is the man to steer Sunderland to safety, according to the club's owner Ellis Short.

The timing of O'Neill's departure has baffled many, with his experienced head discarded in place of a manager whose biggest achievement to date is guiding Swindon Town to the League Two title last season.

To be fair to Mr Short, the recent stats under O'Neill don't look good: eight games without a win, one point above the relegation zone and only seven games to turn things around. Things, clearly, weren't working and time is something managers just aren't given any more - the cost of relegation is too high.

But the controversy over Di Canio's appointment goes far beyond his relative inexperience as a manager.

The club's vice-chairman, David Miliband MP, resigned his post almost as soon as the news came out in protest at the new manager's "past political statements".

Di Canio has self-confessed fascist sympathies, having been fined and banned for a game in 2005 by the Italian football authorities after making raised-arm salutes while playing for Lazio.

There was more controversy after describing fascist Italian leader Benito Mussolini as "basically misunderstood" in his autobiography.

But what, if anything, will all that matter to fans?

Not a lot, if former Sunderland player Darren Williams is to be believed.

He told Sky News Sunrise that if Di Canio can save Sunderland, the fans will see him as a hero, regardless of any views he holds.

His leadership style has been described by his former chief-executive at Swindon as "management by hand grenade".

Sunderland will certainly need to find some fire power if their Premier League status is to be maintained.

For Mr Short, who's been marshalling recent events from a beach, the appointment of Di Canio could either turn out to be a stroke of genius or one of the worst examples of preemptive panic button pressing in recent memory.

If it's the former, Di Canio's fascist sympathies, which, presumably, were present while he was at Swindon, may well be forgotten again. If it's the latter, Mr Short might consider staying on holiday in Hawaii.

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Guildford Station Murder Probe: Tributes Paid

Tributes have been paid to a 22-year-old man who died when he was hit by a train after a confrontation at a railway station.

Three men have been arrested on suspicion of murder after the victim, named locally as Ryan Harrison, suffered fatal injuries at Guildford Station, in Surrey, on Saturday night.

A short time earlier Mr Harrison, from Woking, Surrey, was with a friend when he became involved in an altercation with a number of other men.

Paramedics were called but Mr Harrison was pronounced dead at the scene.

His death is being treated as suspicious, British Transport Police said.

Friend Jake Lund wrote on Facebook: "Cant believe this has happened to such a nice person, rip Ryan".

Sarah Tuffs wrote on Twitter: "R.i.p Ryan harrison, you will be missed by so many, life is too short."

Amir Ahmed also wrote on Twitter: "RIP Ryan Harrison. Still in shock. Gone, but never forgotten."

Two 19-year-old men, from Guildford, were arrested at the scene while a third man, from Cranleigh, Surrey, handed himself into a Guildford police station later.

They all remain in custody.

Detective Chief Inspector Iain Miller, the senior investigating officer, said: "Our thoughts are very much with the man's family at this acutely difficult time for them.

"They're trying to come to terms with what has happened and at this stage, quite understandably, they have asked to be left alone to grieve."

The station was sealed off until the early hours of Sunday while forensics officers examined the scene.

Officers are hoping to recover footage of the incident from CCTV cameras, but they also want to hear from any witnesses at the station.

Anyone with information can call police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

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Benefits Shake-Up 'To Cost Families Hundreds'

By Tadhg Enright, Sky Reporter

Changes to the welfare system will cost the average family £891 over the next year, according to research by Labour and the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

The Conservatives have responded by saying the biggest shake-up of the welfare state in history has already had an effect with a third of those claiming incapacity benefit giving it up to avoid a medical to prove their entitlement.

From Monday, millions of low income families will see an increase in their council tax bills.

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls says millions of families will lose out

The so-called bedroom 'tax' will see housing benefit cut for council house tenants with more bedrooms than they need. Those with one spare room will be deducted 14% and those with more lose a quarter. 

And from next Saturday, the annual increase in tax credits and other working-age benefits will be cut to just 1%, well below the rate of inflation.

The personal income tax allowance for those aged under 65 will rise to £9,440 but the higher rate threshold will fall to £41,450.

The top rate of income tax will also fall from 50p to 45p which Labour claims will shave £100,000 off the annual tax bills of 13,000 people who earn more than £1m a year.

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said: "These shocking figures show the huge hit millions of families are facing at the very same time as David Cameron and George Osborne are giving millionaires an average £100,000 tax cut.

"And while Ministers trumpet the small rise in the income tax personal allowance, they should admit that it is hugely outweighed by things like cuts to tax credits and child benefit, higher VAT, the bedroom tax and the granny tax.

"They are giving with one hand, but taking away much more with the other."

Mum-of-two Emma Kingsbury is one of 660,000 council house tenants who will have to pay the so-called bedroom tax because she needs only two of the three bedrooms in her home,

She told Sky News: "I've only ever needed two bedrooms and now, after placing us in this three bedroom when I didn't need or ask for it, they want us to pay for this room that we rarely use."

The bedroom tax will cost Emma and her boys £15 a week.

The 'bedroom tax' has prompted a number of protests

"The boys will have to stop some of their extra curricular activities, outings for Easter," she said.

"They haven't given anybody any time to try and downsize. I've had a month."

The Government insists it is vital to break the cycle of dependency on benefits and has claimed that welfare reforms have already succeeded in reducing spurious claims.

Out of 1.44 million medical assessments carried out on claimants of incapacity benefit, 837,000 were found to be fit enough to return to work.

A further 878,300 chose to give up their benefit instead of facing a medical to prove their entitlement.

Conservative party chairman Grant Shapps said: "I think it's really important that we do have a system where people are supported in work and where when somebody works they know they are always going to be better off than on benefits.

"I think incapacity benefit and some of these other benefits were used by previous governments to ensure that people didn't sign on to the dole queue. In fact it was a very dishonest way of going about things.

"The great thing now is that people know they don't have to study the Jobcentre computer for an hour and a half, they know they when they go out to work they will always be better off working than on benefits. That's a good thing for them, it's a good thing for society."

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Bird Flu: New Strain Kills Two In China

Two men have died in China after contracting a strain of avian influenza that has never been passed to humans before, the Chinese official news agency has reported.

The men, aged 87 and 27, became sick late last month and died in Shanghai in early March, according to the Xinhua news agency.

The strain of the bird flu virus was identified as H7N9, which had not been transmitted to humans before, Xinhua said, quoting the national health and family planning commission.

There are no known vaccines against the H7N9 virus.

However, the strain does not seem highly contagious because no health abnormalities were detected among 88 of the victims' close contacts, the commission said.

Another woman in nearby Anhui province also contracted the virus in early March and is in a critical condition.

All three cases showed symptoms of fever and coughs that later developed into pneumonia.

It is unclear how the three were infected.

China is considered one of the nations most at risk from bird flu because  it has the world's biggest poultry population and many chickens in rural areas are kept close to humans.

The World Health Organisation says more than 360 confirmed human deaths from the H5N1 strain of avian influenza have been reported globally from 2003 until March 12 this year.

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Pope Francis Calls For End To 'War' In Korea

Pope Francis prayed for a "political solution" in Syria and for "reconciliation" on the Korean peninsula in his first Easter Sunday message.

Thousands of people packed into St Peter's Square to see the pontiff celebrate his first Easter mass and to hear his message to the faithful.

Latin America's first pontiff also issued an appeal for hostages held by militants in Nigeria and condemned human trafficking as "the most extensive form of slavery in this 21st century".

The pope delivered his "Urbi et Orbi" blessing to Rome and the world from the same balcony of St Peter's Basilica where he made his first appearance after his momentous election to the papacy this month.

Speaking in front of some 250,000 people from around the world, Francis prayed for "dear Syria, for its people torn by conflict and for the many refugees who await help and comfort."

He asked: "How much blood has been shed? And how much suffering must there still be before a political solution to the crisis will be found?"

"On the Korean peninsula, may disagreements be overcome and a renewed spirit of reconciliation grow," he said, a day after North Korea declared it was in a "state of war" with South Korea.

Francis also prayed for Nigeria "where great numbers of people, including children, are held hostage by terrorist groups" -- an apparent reference to a French family kidnapped in Cameroon and believed held by the Nigerian group Boko Haram.

The pope also toured St Peter's Square in his open-top "popemobile" -- kissing babies and waving to cheering crowds who held up flags from around the world including his native Argentina.

Pope Francis arrives for the mass in St Peter's Square

Easter is the holiest day in the Christian calendar and celebrates the belief in Jesus Christ's death and resurrection. It is the culmination of weeks of intense prayer for Christians.

At an Easter Vigil in St Peter's Basilica on Saturday, the first pontiff from outside Europe in nearly 1,300 years of Church history reached out to non-believers and lapsed Catholics, urging them to "step forward" to God.

The Catholic Church has been struggling in the face of rising secularism, particularly in Europe where attendances at masses are falling sharply.

During his message, Francis prayed God would reach "every house and every family, especially where the suffering is greatest, in hospitals, in prisons."

On Holy Thursday, Francis celebrated an unprecedented Mass in a youth prison in Rome in which he washed the feet of 12 inmates including two girls and two Muslims -- a ritual seen as a gesture of humility towards the 12 apostles attributed to Jesus.

Previous popes only ever performed the ritual with priests or Catholic laymen.

Francis took over the papacy after the resignation of Benedict XVI who stunned the world by announcing he wanted to become the first pope to leave office voluntarily in more than 700 years.

The 85-year-old admitted he no longer had the physical or mental strength to carry out his papal duties.

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Lord Carey Attacks David Cameron On Religion

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey has launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister David Cameron.

In an article for the Daily Mail, Lord Carey says many Christians doubt the PM's "sincerity" when he pledges to protect their religious freedoms and accuses ministers of "aiding and abetting" discrimination against believers.

He points to Government plans to legalise gay marriage as evidence of an "aggressive secularist and relativist approach" and argues that Mr Cameron has fed Christian "anxieties" more than "any other recent political leader".

Lord Carey also says a new poll suggesting that more than two-thirds of Christians feel they are now part of a "persecuted minority" shows the Government must do more to demonstrate its commitment to stand up for faith.

The ComRes poll commissioned by the Coalition for Marriage also found more than half of Christians who backed the Conservatives in 2010 say they will "definitely not" vote for the party in 2015.

Lord Carey expresses alarm about Labour MP Chris Bryant's campaign to turn the 700-year-old Parliamentary chapel of St Mary Undercroft into a multi-faith prayer room so that gay couples can get married there.

Lord Carey slammed Chris Bryant's campaign for gay marriages in Parliament

But he also directly calls into question the Prime Minister's actions, saying: "I like David Cameron and believe he is genuinely sincere in his desire to make Britain a generous nation where we care for one another and where people of faith may exercise their beliefs fully.

"But it was a bit rich to hear that the Prime Minister has told religious leaders that they should 'stand up and oppose aggressive secularisation' when it seems that his Government is aiding and abetting this aggression every step of the way.

"At his pre-Easter Downing Street reception for faith leaders, he said that he supported Christians' right to practise their faith. Yet many Christians doubt his sincerity.

"According to a new ComRes poll more than two thirds of Christians feel that they are part of a 'persecuted minority'. Their fears may be exaggerated because few in the UK are actually persecuted, but the Prime Minister has done more than any other recent political leader to feed these anxieties.

"He seems to have forgotten in spite of his oft-repeated support for the right of Christians to wear the cross, that lawyers acting for the coalition argued only months ago in the Strasbourg court that those sacked for wearing a cross against their employer's wishes should simply get another job."

The new poll suggests continuing resentment over legalising same-sex unions, even though there is special protection for the Church of England in the law, and Lord Carey's successor Justin Welby has softened the Church's stance on the issue.

Two thirds of those polled said they believed allowing same sex unions was an attempt to make the Conservative Party look trendy.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has vowed to protect religion

The poll comes after a series of controversial cases between Christians and employers over their rights to express their faith in the workplace.

Recent cases include Adrian Smith, a Trafford housing manager who says he was demoted and had his pay docked 40% after questioning the Government's plans for same sex marriage and Reverend Brian Ross who was sacked as the Chaplain of Strathclyde Police, apparently because his support for traditional marriage did not fit with the force's equality and diversity policies.

In another case, graphic designer Jamie Haxby is suing a hotel after claiming he was turned down for a job because he is a Christian.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles insists that unlike New Labour 'we do do God' and has agreed freedom of religion has been undermined.

He has vowed to change the law if necessary to stop people being taken to task for wearing a cross or a rosary, and says council should not try to ban prayers before meetings.

But the march of secularism means Britain will no longer be a Christian country within just 20 years, according to official research by the House of Commons library.

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