Soccer legend David Beckham has fulfilled his promise to donate his salary to two French children’s charities.

David Beckham

The former England captain will hand over the salary he received while playing for Paris Saint-Germain to specific children’s charities based in the city.

After long talks with the French tax authorities, the go ahead has been given to hand over an estimation of €200,000 to the Necker Children’s Hospital in Paris and a local organisation which sends games and educational activities to the young people’s wards in various French hospitals.

Beckham signed a five month contract to be with the team at the start of 2013 and retired from football following the conclusion of the the season.

World leaders, including US president Barrack Obama, are currently meeting in County Fermanagh for the annual G8 summit.  

Taoiseach Enda Kenny at the G8 summit.

The G8 or Group of Eight, is a grouping of the some of the wealthiest nations in the world. The G8 is made up of the leaders of the United States, Russia, Japan, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Canada.

The group meets annually to discuss mater of mutual interest and attempts to find common ground, these summits have attracted sizable protests in recent years.

The ongoing conflict in Syria and new measures designed to clampdown on companies avoiding tax are among the issues being discussed in Fermanagh.

The European Union (EU) and US also launched talks on a possible new trade agreement, designed to benefit the economy of each.  Leaders said the deal could generate €115b for the EU’s economy and over €90b for the US.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny is attending the conference as part of Ireland’s presidency of the EU. The conference is to last two days and is being hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron.

The summit is taking place amid a heavy security presence, with 8,000 police on duty around the Lough Erne Resort.

27 people had to be treated in hospital after an amphibious tour bus sank in Liverpool on Saturday afternoon.

Several ambulances were called when the craft sank in the city’s River Mersey, there were 31 passengers on board at the time.

Rescue service said that all people on board had been accounted for, with many being treated in hospital for minor injuries. 18 people having being discharged from the city’s Royal Victoria Hospital by Saturday night.

The Yellow Duckmarine tour company said it was working with the coastguard and police to establish what had caused the sinking.

Tim Olsen was out shopping when he noticed the vehicle encountering difficulties.

“They only had seconds to get out, it went down very quickly” The police, ambulance and air ambulance services arrived on the scene quickly and I think they got everybody off OK,” he said.

The incident is the second time one of the vessels has sank this year and has sparked renewed debate over the craft’s safety. Liverpool’s Mayor Joe Anderson refused to be drawn on Yellow Duckmarine’s future in the city.

“I will not make any official comment on the future of these ducks until we know people are all OK,” he said.

The DUKW vehicles used by Yellow Duckmarine are the same vehicles used by Dublin’s Viking Splash Tour. The popular attraction offers people a guided tour around the capital’s historic streets and the chance to travel down the Liffey.

Robbie Keane has announced that he will play the rest of his career in the MLS, and wants to go into management after he retires.

The Irish captain, who surpassed Shay Given’s record by making his 126^th appearance for Ireland last Friday, has come a long way since his international debut against the Czech Republic in 1998.

Ireland’s captain and record goalscorer is still going strong at 32

Keane recently signed a new two year deal with the LA Galaxy and has the option to add another year on after that.

When asked about a potential return to the Premier League, Keane replied; “’I am very, very happy, very content where I am in this situation in my life. If you keep playing and keep producing and keep scoring goals, it doesn’t really matter where you are.”

The Tallaght native has shown few signs of slowing down on an international level, scoring a brilliant hat-trick against the Faroe Islands in Ireland’s latest World Cup qualifier. Many people had speculated that his move to America would bring an end to his Irish career, but this has not been the case.

When talking about his future after football, and the possibility of moving into management, Keane joked that, “when I stop playing football, what else am I going to do? This is all I know!”

Keane will start the process of getting into management this December when he is set to start doing his coaching badges; however, he made it clear that he is going to try and play for as long as he can first.

Violent clashes continue in Istanbul, the capitol of Turkey, with police attempting to clear anti-government protesters from the streets of the city. 

Gezi Park in Istanbul – To be demolished.

The trouble started two weeks ago when people gathered in Gezi Park, one of the few remaining green spaces in the city, to try and save it from being bulldozed and built on.

Although the protest was peaceful at first it quickly grew bigger and turned violent. Many have blamed the Government for over-reacting and using excess force including water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets to try and clear the crowds. The protest spread to neighbouring areas and to date three people have been killed and an estimated 5,000 injured.

Turkey’s prime minister, Tayip Erdogan, has responded by saying that the protesters are a ‘minority of troublemakers’ and also claims that the protests are an attempt by opposition parties to discredit the government and damage the international image of Turkey.

His ruling party has been very popular for the past ten years because it has been seen as driving Turkey forward and improving its economy. But now his critics say that he is going too far and is passing laws which restrict people’s personal freedom and civil rights.

Turkey is what is known as a ‘secular society’, this means that the government is supposed to run the country without allowing religious beliefs to affect their policies. His critics say that he is no longer doing this but is increasingly running the country to suit one section of society.

In Istanbul yesterday police appealed to the demonstrators not to attack, calling from loudspeakers, “Dear Gezi friends. We are unhappy with this situation. We don’t want to intervene. We don’t want to harm you. Please withdraw.” “If you don’t throw rocks or bottles we will not intervene. Let’s quit fighting,”

A Canadian astronaut who captivated the world with photos documenting his time on the International Space Station (ISS) is to retire.

Commander Chris Hadfield has announced he will retire on July 3rd and return home to live in Canada. The astronaut has spent the last 30 years living in Texas, having been been assigned to NASA ‘s Johnson Space Center in Houston by the Canadian Space Agency.

Cmdr Hadfield captured worldwide media attention through his use of social media to document his recent six-month stay aboard the ISS. He became the first astronaut to use social media to spark public interest in science and the space programme.

While in space, Cmdr Hadfield tweeted about his life on the station to his over one million followers on Twitter, sharing breathtaking images of Earth.

The astronaut’s daughter is attending Dublin’s Trinity’s college and he has an affinity for the country as a result. He regularly tweeted photos of Ireland during his time on the ISS and became the first person to send a message in Irish from space, when he sent a tweet “as Gaeilge”.

Cmdr Hadfield said he had no immediate plans for the future and was just focusing on recovering physically after his six-month  mission aboard the ISS.

South Africans have been asked to pray for former president Nelson Mandela, who remains in hospital in the country.

Former South African president Nelson Mandela.

Prayers have been said in churches across South Africa for Mr Mandela, who is spending a second day in hospital for treatment of a lung infection.

Mr Mandela has battled with poor  health for several years since retiring from public life in 2004. This is the third time he has been hospitalized  this year, having also spent nearly three weeks in hospital in December with a lung infection and after surgery to remove gallstones.

He was rushed to hospital  in the early hours of Saturday morning after his condition deteriorated. The 94-year-old is breathing unaided and remains in a serious but stable condition.

Mandela’s lung problems are being attributed to the 27 years he was imprisoned in Robben Island for his opposition to the apartheid regime in South Africa. He is believed to  have damaged his lungs while working in the prison’s quarry and contracted the lung disease tuberculosis in the 1980s.

Despite having retired from politics since 1999 and rarely being seen in public since, he remains an iconic symbol of the struggle against minority while rule in South Africa.

Apartheid was the practice of forcibly separating white and black South Africans. Despite the fact that the majority of South Africans were black, they had limited rights and the country was run by the white ‘Afrikaners’.

Despite being unjustly jailed and deprived of his freedom for over a quarter of a century, Mandela preached a message of peace and reconciliation upon his release from Robben Island. His stance made him a hero across Africa and the wider world.

His last appearance in public was at the final of the soccer World Cup in Johannesburg in 2010.

There are many things you can do to help charities, from raising money at a bake sale, throwing a couple of euros into the Trocaire box during Lent, or having a jersey day at school to organising a soccer tournament. Look at the amazing things these people have done for charity:

Marathons – The Flora Women’s Mini Marathon is the biggest all women’s event of its kind in the world. A staggering 40,395 women participated in 2012. Since it began in 1983 nearly 780,000 women have entered the event.

Indeed, it is not only women who have benefited from the event, but the charities are also the big winners. In 2012 it is estimated that almost €14m was raised by the participants.

In June 2009 Margaret Hennessy took part in the mini marathon with her daughter. “Myself and my daughter ran the marathon to raise money and awareness for the charity SOSAD. SOSAD raises awareness of suicide in Ireland and it is a charity close to my heart. Between myself and my daughter we raised about €400 for the charity. We had loads of fun training for and doing the marathon together and it’s great knowing you are helping out a charity at the same time.”

Skydives – Doing a skydive for charity gives you the opportunity to make a tandem skydive, and get possibly the biggest adrenaline rush of your life, all while raising money for your chosen charity.

In April 2013 Michael Dever jumped out of a plane to do a skydive of 10,000 feet to raise money and awareness for Acquired Brain Injury Ireland. “I had done a bungee jump for charity before but nothing will ever beat the adrenaline rush of doing that skydive! I was terrified but super excited jumping out of the plane. I could see for miles. I raised almost €500 for the charity Acquired Brain Injury Ireland and I got to do something I’ve always wanted to do at the same time, it was a win win situation.”

Charity work abroad – Many people do work abroad to help those less fortunate, from building houses to digging wells, every little helps.

In both 2003 and 2004, Seamus Grehan travelled all the way to Belarus with Kilbeggan Friends of Belarus charity to help build and renovate orphanages. “Going over to work in the orphanages in Belarus was a life changing experience for me. It was so good knowing that you were improving the lives of others who are less well off than you. With the charity we built new bathrooms and shower blocks in one orphanage and bought medical supplies for another orphanage. I would love to go back over again, I would recommend it to anybody who wants to make a difference in the world.”

Have you ever done anything to raise money for a charity? Every little helps and you’ll definitely feel good about yourself after!

Police in Russia’s capital of Moscow have discovered an underground city which housed over 200 undocumented foreign workers.
People who work in Russia illegally have very few rights and are sometimes forced to work for little money and live in very poor conditions.

Moscow

The factory operated on a shift basis and worked through the night.

Raids by police on these types of operations are common in Russia. It is believed by some that for every documented worker in Russia there are a further 10 that are undocumented. The Federal Migration Service estimates that their number could be as high as 3 million.

Yesterday was the warmest day of the year so far and the sunshine is expected to continue until the end of the week according to weather forecasters. 

People enjoying the sunshine.

Many people took to parks and beaches across the country to bask in the summer sunshine, while sales of ice cream also rose.

Temperatures are expected to reach as high as 22C today, rivaling popular holiday destinations such as Barcelona and the South of France

The warm weather comes as respite after months of cold and windy, figures released by Met Éireann revealed that last spring was the coldest in 62 years.

The weather station at Dublin Airport reported the coldest spring since 1951, with average temperatures of under 7C.

Met Éireann forecaster Harm Luijkx said that it was unlikely any new records for June temperatures will be set this week, they will nonetheless be several degrees above normal for this time of year.

“Each day will probably get fairly warm weather with temperatures reaching the low 20s,” he said.