EARLY EVENING: A brief round-up of other news happening at home and abroad today
COSTLY: Taxpayers are paying £34m a year in child benefits to European migrants [AP] NORTH AMERICA: Maya Angelou, an renowned artist and activist has died at 86.
The first black woman to be a major success as an author, she was an ardent defender of black culture, having befriended Malcom X, Nelson Mandela and Rev Martin Luther King Jr.
Her 1969 autobiography, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, is her most famous work and was once banned in US schools for its raw depictions of racism and sexual abuse.
UKRAINE: A hockey stadium in Donetsk caught fire yesterday.
According to local media, the Druzhba sports arena was broken into by an armed group early in the morning and set alight.
The attack comes as tensions between the government and Russian separatists continue to escalate.
Ralf Osterhagen, 16, found the device on the lake shore of a camping ground and, realising it was an explosive, took it to the local police station on his moped.
The police station was evacuated and bomb disposal experts called in - who announced it was a dud with the detonator missing.
SPAIN: The Spanish government have has failed to protect citizens from a recent housing crash, leaving many with heavy debts, according to Human Rights Watch.
The non-governmental organisation claims tens of thousands of families are facing — or have faced — foreclosure on houses they had bought.
Judith Sunderland, author of the report, said: "It’s not simply a question of crushed aspirations. It’s about government responsibilities to guarantee basic human rights, including the right to adequate housing."
ZAMBIA: A suspected poacher fatally shot a wildlife park ranger who had set out to investigate gunshots.
Dexter Chilunda is believed to have discovered two poachers on his patrol of Liuwa Plain National Park and was shot in the chest at close range with a shotgun.
Police and park rangers are following tracks from the site of the shooting and are offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the shooter's killer's arrest.
COSTLY: Taxpayers are paying £34m a year in child benefits to European migrants [GETTY] BRITAIN: Figures released by the House of Commons today show that Britain spends £34million a year on child benefit payments for the children of migrant workers living in Europe.
EU law means British taxpayers are forced to pay child benefit to 20,400 families across Europe, or 34,268 non British children – almost two-thirds live in Poland.
Prime Minister David Cameron told the BBC: "Under the current rules, it seems extremely difficult, if not impossible, to change that."
CHINA: The tourism board of Xinjiang are offering cash incentives to tourists prepared to visit, following a wave of terrorist attacks from a religious extremist group.
More than 80 people have died in knife and bomb attacks — none of which have been tourists, according the board — since October 2013.
Visitors who come to the far-west desert region will be gifted 500 yuan (£47.50) for their trouble.\
NEPAL: A Chinese mountain climber was accused of cheating by fellow climbers when she used a helicopter to scale sections of Mount Everest.
Wang Jing, the first climber to ascend Everest after an avalanche killed 16 sherpas in April, used a helicopter to bypass the Khumbu Icefall, the most dangerous part of the climb.
Though her achievement was recognised by Nepal's tourism board, other experienced mountaineers felt the climb would set a bad precedent for other attempts. NEW ZEALAND: Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom announced yesterday he would join the Mana Party, which represents the indigenous Maori population.
Dotcom, who is fighting US attempts to extradite him for running the now-closed illegal download website Megaupload, donated £127,000 to create the new political party Internet Mana.
BRITAIN: A lack of staff in prisons is causing "unprecedented strain", decreasing safety and the chance to rehabilitate inmates, a report has revealed.
The Prison Reform Trust says that prison intake has increased by more than 500 people between May 9 and May 23 this year – and two-thirds of UK prisons are overcrowded.
Juliet Lyon, director of the Trust, said: "Slashing prison budgets and introducing harsher regimes while warehousing ever greater numbers overseen by fewer staff is no way to transform rehabilitation."
NORTH AMERICA: President Barack Obama announced plans today to withdraw all but 9,800 American troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year and withdraw the remainder by the end of 2016.
The move would bring an end to a military engagement that has lasted more than a decade, triggered by the September 11 2003 terrorist attacks on the US
COSTLY: Taxpayers are paying £34m a year in child benefits to European migrants [AP] The first black woman to be a major success as an author, she was an ardent defender of black culture, having befriended Malcom X, Nelson Mandela and Rev Martin Luther King Jr.
Her 1969 autobiography, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, is her most famous work and was once banned in US schools for its raw depictions of racism and sexual abuse.
UKRAINE: A hockey stadium in Donetsk caught fire yesterday.
According to local media, the Druzhba sports arena was broken into by an armed group early in the morning and set alight.
The attack comes as tensions between the government and Russian separatists continue to escalate.
AUSTRIA: A teenager came under fire after he tried to turn in a Second World War shell he discovered to police.“It’s not simply a question of crushed aspirations. It’s about government responsibilities to guarantee basic human rights, including the right to adequate housing”Judith Sunderland
Ralf Osterhagen, 16, found the device on the lake shore of a camping ground and, realising it was an explosive, took it to the local police station on his moped.
The police station was evacuated and bomb disposal experts called in - who announced it was a dud with the detonator missing.
SPAIN: The Spanish government have has failed to protect citizens from a recent housing crash, leaving many with heavy debts, according to Human Rights Watch.
The non-governmental organisation claims tens of thousands of families are facing — or have faced — foreclosure on houses they had bought.
Judith Sunderland, author of the report, said: "It’s not simply a question of crushed aspirations. It’s about government responsibilities to guarantee basic human rights, including the right to adequate housing."
ZAMBIA: A suspected poacher fatally shot a wildlife park ranger who had set out to investigate gunshots.
Dexter Chilunda is believed to have discovered two poachers on his patrol of Liuwa Plain National Park and was shot in the chest at close range with a shotgun.
Police and park rangers are following tracks from the site of the shooting and are offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the shooter's killer's arrest.
COSTLY: Taxpayers are paying £34m a year in child benefits to European migrants [GETTY] EU law means British taxpayers are forced to pay child benefit to 20,400 families across Europe, or 34,268 non British children – almost two-thirds live in Poland.
Prime Minister David Cameron told the BBC: "Under the current rules, it seems extremely difficult, if not impossible, to change that."
CHINA: The tourism board of Xinjiang are offering cash incentives to tourists prepared to visit, following a wave of terrorist attacks from a religious extremist group.
More than 80 people have died in knife and bomb attacks — none of which have been tourists, according the board — since October 2013.
Visitors who come to the far-west desert region will be gifted 500 yuan (£47.50) for their trouble.\
NEPAL: A Chinese mountain climber was accused of cheating by fellow climbers when she used a helicopter to scale sections of Mount Everest.
Wang Jing, the first climber to ascend Everest after an avalanche killed 16 sherpas in April, used a helicopter to bypass the Khumbu Icefall, the most dangerous part of the climb.
Though her achievement was recognised by Nepal's tourism board, other experienced mountaineers felt the climb would set a bad precedent for other attempts.
Dotcom, who is fighting US attempts to extradite him for running the now-closed illegal download website Megaupload, donated £127,000 to create the new political party Internet Mana.
BRITAIN: A lack of staff in prisons is causing "unprecedented strain", decreasing safety and the chance to rehabilitate inmates, a report has revealed.
The Prison Reform Trust says that prison intake has increased by more than 500 people between May 9 and May 23 this year – and two-thirds of UK prisons are overcrowded.
Juliet Lyon, director of the Trust, said: "Slashing prison budgets and introducing harsher regimes while warehousing ever greater numbers overseen by fewer staff is no way to transform rehabilitation."
NORTH AMERICA: President Barack Obama announced plans today to withdraw all but 9,800 American troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year and withdraw the remainder by the end of 2016.
The move would bring an end to a military engagement that has lasted more than a decade, triggered by the September 11 2003 terrorist attacks on the US
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