PM's 'Help To Save' Plan For Low-Paid Workers

People on low incomes will be eligible for a bonus of up to £1,200 over four years if they put money away in a new savings scheme, David Cameron has announced.

Under the Help to Save initiative, around 3.5 million workers on universal credit or working tax credits will be able to save up to £50 a month and receive a bonus of 50% - a maximum of £600 - after two years.

For a further two years, savers can continue to use the scheme and earn up to another £600.

Research suggests almost half of Britain's adults have less than £500 set aside for emergencies.

The Prime Minister also announced an increase to the national minimum wage for young workers.

From October, the rate will go up by 25p an hour for 21- to 24-year-olds, taking the rate to £6.95, and by the same amount for 18- to 20-year-olds, putting their pay at £5.55 an hour.

The rate will increase from £3.87 to £4.00 an hour for under-18s and apprentices will be given a 10p hourly rise taking them to £3.40.

The Government has already announced plans for a national living wage of £7.20 for workers over 25 from April.

Speaking about today's announcements, Mr Cameron said: "I've made it the mission of this government to transform life chances across the country.

"That means giving hard-working people the extra support they need to fulfil their potential.

"And that's what these new measures will achieve - helping someone start a savings fund to get them through difficult times, giving people on low incomes a pay rise and making sure teenagers have the experience and networks to succeed."

Meanwhile, George Osborne has warned of a further £4bn spending cuts in Wednesday's Budget, saying "that the world is a more uncertain place than at any time since the financial crisis and we need to act now so we don't pay later".

Savings equivalent to 50p in every £100 the Government spends needed to be found by 2020, the Chancellor said.

Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, has criticised the Chancellor for not doing more to cut spending. 

He said: "While the Chancellor deserves some credit for steering the economy through difficult times, much of the action which was urgently needed to bring spending down and sort out the nation's finances sadly never took place."

Top U.N. Official Calls on India to Criminalize Marital Rape

India could be violating the U.N.’s development agenda if it fails to criminalize marital rape, the head of the U.N. Development Programme implied on Monday.

In an interview with the Hindu newspaper, UNDP chief Helen Clark said the only parameter for determining rape should be consent.

“It’s pretty clear in the circles I move in at the U.N. that rape is rape,” Clark said on the sidelines of a summit in New Delhi. “The issue is the consent of the women, and if it isn’t there, it is rape.”

She also added that each country needs to examine its laws under the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals, which India has officially adopted, to see whether they “take women forward or take them back.”

Clark, a former Prime Minister of New Zealand, was responding to a statement by India’s Minister for Women and Child Development in which marital rape was referred to as a foreign concept. The minister, Maneka Gandhi, said last week that factors like India’s “illiteracy, poverty, myriad social customs and values etc.” mean that the concept of marital rape “cannot be suitably applied” to India.

“An assault on women at home is never something ‘within the family,’” Clark told the Hindu. “It is a crime. It has to be recognized and dealt with.”

ISIL attacks kill 47 Iraqi soldiers near Ramadi

Iraqi forces declared victory over ISIL in Ramadi in late December and have since cleared most of the city [File: Reuters]

At least 47 Iraqi soldiers have been killed in a series of attacks by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) fighters near the strategic city of Ramadi, military sources said.

The first attack took place overnight on the headquarters of the 3rd rapid deployment force and other military barracks in the villages of Qutainiyah and Zuwaiyah, near Zankurah town, the sources told Al Jazeera on Monday morning.

At least 22 soldiers were killed and a further 16 security personnel were injured in the attack.

On Monday afternoon, two separate ISIL suicide car bombers struck Iraqi Security Force convoys in the villages of Safiyrah and Abu Taiban, about 30km northwest of Ramadi.

At least 25 soldiers were killed and another 20 were injured in the twin attacks.

Iraqi forces declared victory over ISIL in Ramadi in late December and have since cleared most of the western city.

Since being pushed from the centre of Ramadi, ISIL has launched near-daily attacks on Iraqi forces, especially on its outskirts.

Ramadi, the Anbar provincial capital where around half a million people once lived, was lost to ISIL in May 2015.

The US-led coalition carried out more than 600 air strikes in the area from July to December last year.

Star Wars actor Oscar Isaac reveals Obi Wan letter

Sir Alec Guinness branded co-star Harrison Ford a "languid young man" in a letter read by Star Wars actor Oscar Isaac at a performance in London.

Writing during filming of the 1977 film Star Wars: A New Hope, Sir Alec said: "Can't say I'm enjoying the film."

The letter from the late actor, who played Obi Wan Kenobi, talks about the film's "rubbish dialogue".

Isaac, who plays Poe Dameron in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, was at Letters Live at Freemasons' Hall in London.

Sir Alec wrote to his friend Anne Kauffman: "New rubbish dialogue reaches me every other day on wadges of pink paper, and none of it makes my character clear or even bearable."

He said he was working with "Mark Hamill and Tennyson (that can't be right) Ford. Ellison? No! Well a rangy, languid man who is probably intelligent and amusing."

Letters Live sees actors and performers reading out literary correspondence to a live audience.

Sherlock actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Louise Brearley also took part, along with theatre and opera director Sophie Hunter.

Cumberbatch read out a letter by American author Mark Twain to the American poet Walt Whitman, which paid tribute to all the changes he had witnessed in the world over the course of his lifetime.

Cumberbatch and Brearley then performed letters between Bessie Moore and Chris Barker, two sweethearts separated by World War Two. 

Hunter read out a letter from deaf and blind woman Helen Keller to the New York Symphony Orchestra, thanking them for the music which she had experienced through the radio by feeling the vibrations.

Yemen conflict: UAE jet missing on mission against Houthis

The United Arab Emirates has said that one of its warplanes taking part in a mission against Houthi rebels in Yemen is missing.

The country's official news agency, WAM, announced the disappearance without giving further details.

The Saudi-led coalition of which UAE is a part has been carrying out air strikes since March 2015 in support of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.

Some 6,000 people have been killed in the Yemen conflict.

It is the first known loss of an Emirati jet in the conflict. 

Officials have not yet announced the type of jet lost, or whether any pilots were harmed.

The UAE Air Force operates both F-16 and Mirage 2000 fighter jets.

In December, a Bahraini F-16 crashed in Saudi Arabia due to a "technical error", while in May a Moroccan warplane came down over Yemen. 

Both jets were taking part in the Yemen campaign, which has the codename "Operation Restoring Hope".

The UN has criticised both the Saudi-led campaign and the Houthis for causing civilian casualties.

Egyptian minister sacked for pledge to jail Prophet Muhammad

Justice Minister Ahmed al-Zind has been sacked after boasting that he would jail Islam's Prophet Muhammad himself if the prophet broke the law.

Mr Zind made the remark in a televised interview on Friday. He immediately said "God forgive me" and apologised the following day. 

He was sacked by the Prime Minister, Sherif Ismail.

It was not immediately clear who would replace Mr Zind, an outspoken critic of the Muslim Brotherhood.

"Prime Minister Sherif Ismail issued a decree today to relieve Ahmed al-Zind ... of his position," a government statement said, giving no more details.

es issued a statement opposing Mr Zind's removal over what the head of the Judges Club told Reuters was a slip of the tongue that could have happened to anyone.

Abdallah Fath said: "Egypt's judges are sorry that someone who defended Egypt and its people, judiciary and nation ... should be punished in this way."

Mr Zind, a former appeals court judge, has been publicly critical of the Islamist movement which overthrew former leader Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and was removed from power itself by the army in mid-2013 and outlawed.

He has in the past denounced the revolt that ended Mubarak's 30-year rule and ushered in the election that brought the Muslim Brotherhood to power. 

He has also been a strong defender of the judiciary and its powerful position.

Egyptian courts have been absolving Mubarak-era officials, while imposing long sentences on liberal and Islamist activists.

Egypt's judiciary has faced criticism from rights groups in the past two years after judges issued mass death sentences against Muslim Brotherhood supporters, locking up youth activists and sentencing writers and journalists.

Mr Zind's predecessor was forced to resign last May after saying the son of a rubbish collector was ineligible to serve as a judge.

Al-Qaeda claims deadly Ivory Coast attack on resort

A soldier stands over a body on a beach after the attack in Grand Bassam [Joe Penney/Reuters]

Al-Qaeda's North Africa branch claimed responsibility after six gunmen opened fire on civilians at an Ivory Coast beach resort, killing at least 16 people. 

Bloody bodies were sprawled on the beach and witnesses described horrific scenes as a lazy Sunday afternoon was shattered by West Africa's latest attack.

Fourteen civilians and two special forces soldiers were killed before the six assailants were gunned down in the resort of Grand Bassam. Sunday's attack targeted three hotels in the southeastern town, located about 40km east of the country's economic capital, Abidjan.

Ivory Coast's President Alassane Ouattara arrived in Grand Bassam a few hours after the shooting rampage.

The beach resort of Grand Bassam

"I present my condolences to the families of the people who were murdered, and of course I am very proud of our security forces who reacted so fast," Ouattara said outside the Etoile du Sud, one of the targeted hotels. "The toll could've been much heavier."

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.

Bursts of gunfire sent people running from the beach at Grand Bassam, a UNESCO World Heritage site and popular destination for Ivorians and foreigners. 

It was the third major attack on a tourism centre in West Africa since November.

Some witnesses said the assailants fired at random, while others said the killing was more targeted. Witness Marcel Guy said gunmen raced across the beach in small groups, toting Kalashnikov rifles and hunting for victims.

One gunman, who had a long beard, approached two children on the beach and Guy said he heard the man speaking Arabic. One of the children then knelt and started praying. He was spared, while the other boy was not.

"The Christian boy was shot and killed right in front of my eyes," Guy said.

Nii Akeutteh, an Africa policy analyst, told Al Jazeera security officials in the region will be closely watching the situation.

"African borders in general and in the Sahel in particular are pretty porous… I'm not surprised that they got all the way to the south of Ivory Coast. The prudent thing to do is to assume this will not be the last attack," said Akeutteh. 

Dozens of people were killed in the earlier attacks on West African tourist sites, starting with a siege at a Malian hotel in November, and then an assault on a hotel and cafe in Burkina Faso in January.

Analysts have warned for months that Ivory Coast, which shares a border with both of those affected countries, could be hit as well.

"The United States strongly condemns the terrorist attack in Cote d'Ivoire in the Grand Bassam. We send our thoughts and prayers to all affected by this senseless violence," US Department of State spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.