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Housing benefit for council and housing association tenants was reduced by 14 per cent for those deemed to have one spare bedroom and by 25 per cent for those with two or more spare bedrooms. Council Tax Benefit, claimed by 5.9 million families, was transformed into Council Tax Support, supplied by local authority schemes. The Financial Services Authority was replaced by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. In the National Health Service, GP-led groups took control of local budgets and a new board called NHS England began to oversee day-to-day running of services. The introduction of a 111 health helpline throughout England was delayed after some pilot schemes proved unsatisfactory, with callers holding on for hours. A policewoman sued a petrol station after tripping over a kerb there while investigating a 999 call in the middle of the night. Robbers were caught on closed-circuit television gathering cash after blowing up a cash dispenser at a petrol station at Weyhill, Hampshire. Oxford won the Boat Race to make it 77 wins to Cambridge’s 81. The BBC broadcast live the instructions of the Oxford cox, Oskar Zorrilla, to his crew, such as ‘Be fucking tenacious.’
Children’s heart surgery at Leeds General Infirmary was suspended by Sir Bruce Keogh, the medical director of the NHS, after figures suggesting a high mortality rate were drawn to his attention, and Professor Sir Roger Boyle, the director of the National Institute of Clinical Outcomes Research, had raised concerns about junior staff being left in charge. But Dr John Gibbs, a former cardiologist at Leeds and now chairman of the Central Cardiac Database, said: ‘We have not even got the data statistically analysed yet. It is not fair to the public to leak provisional data.’ Surgery was suspended 24 hours after a High Court ruling kept the unit open. Wild fires stretched for three miles on the dry and windy moors north of Fort William.
France and Germany declined an invitation from the British Foreign Office to take part in its review of the relations between the EU and member states. David Miliband, who is resigning as an MP to go to work in New York, also resigned as a non-executive director of Sunderland football club after the appointment as its chief coach of Paolo Di Canio, who once described himself as ‘a fascist, not a racist’. Richard Griffiths, the actor best known for his performances in Withnail and I and The History Boys, died, aged 65. South Yorkshire Police and Barnsley Metropolitan Council banned all unaccompanied under-16s from the town centre between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. In Uckfield, Sussex, a rabbit that eats Weetabix was found to be the world’s biggest, at 3st 8lb.
Abroad
North Korea, three days after cutting a military hotline to the South, said it was entering a ‘state of war’ with South Korea. It said it would restart its nuclear complex at Yongbyon. Earlier it had reappointed Pak Pong-ju, who was sacked as premier in 2007. The UN General Assembly adopted a treaty to control trade in conventional arms, by a majority of 154 votes to three, with 23 abstentions, including Russia and China.
Michalis Sarris resigned as finance minister of Cyprus after completing negotiations for a €10 billion bailout. Russia said it would not compensate Russian savers in the Bank of Cyprus and Laiki bank, who stood to lose 60 per cent of their savings if their deposits exceeded €10,000. Cypriots were prohibited from withdrawing more than €300 a day from any bank or taking more than €1,000 abroad. Unemployment in the eurozone reached an average of 12 per cent, with Greece and Spain recording levels of 26 per cent. The United States had lost nearly two million clerical jobs since 2007, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and gained 387,000 new managers.
In Syria, 6,005 people were killed in March, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group. India rejected a legal bid by the Swiss company Novartis to patent a new version of its cancer drug, Glivec. The drug costs about £1,710 a month, but the generic equivalent is available in India for £115. Nelson Mandela, aged 94, stayed in hospital with pneumonia. The supreme court in Kenya upheld the victory of Uhuru Kenyatta over Raila Odinga in the presidential elections. About 180 people spent an afternoon trapped on an ice floe that drifted from the Latvian shore into the Gulf of Riga. –CSH
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