Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Monday 15 Jul 2013

1. VIOLENCE IN LA OVER ZIMMERMAN VERDICT

There have been violent clashes between protesters and police in Los Angeles, with non-lethal rounds fired and rocks thrown, as demonstrations take place all over the US in response to the acquittal of neighbourhood watch member George Zimmerman who shot dead black teenager Trayvon Martin.

US self-defence culture made Zimmerman acquittal inevitable

2. BENEFITS CAP OF £500 ROLLS OUT

A cornerstone of the government’s welfare reforms, a cap on the total benefits one person or couple can receive, rolls out across most of the UK today after trials in four London boroughs since April. Couples and single parents will now be able to claim £500 at most per week, with single people limited to £350.

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Boosting welfare cap, Cameron gets caught out by IDS spoof

3. HEAT MAY HAVE CAUSED TA DEATHS

Lance Corporal Craig Roberts has been named as one of two soldiers who died in an exercise in the Brecon Beacons on Saturday. Military investigators are considering the possibility that temperatures of up to 29.5C - the hottest day of the year so far - may have been to blame for the deaths of the two reservists.

SAS Brecon Beacon deaths: 'gross failures' by MoD

4. MANHUNT AFTER PENSIONER MURDERED

Police are seeking an “extremely dangerous man” after a pensioner in his 70s who had gone to the aid of a neighbour in his 80s, was murdered in Berkhampstead. Police have released an image of Ian John McLoughlin, 55, also known as Ian John Baker, whom they want to speak to in connection with the crime.

5. BRITISH WOMAN DIES ON CHANNEL SWIM

A British woman has died while attempting to swim the English Channel, French authorities have said. Susan Taylor was north-east of Cape Gris-Nez in Wissant Bay, Pas-de-Calais, when emergency services were alerted. The 34-year-old's support team reportedly radioed authorities requesting a defibrillator.

Channel tragedy as swimmer Susan Taylor dies in hospital

6. WOMAN 'ELECTROCUTED' BY IPHONE

Apple has vowed to “thoroughly investigate” a report that a Chinese woman was killed by a massive electric shock when she answered her iPhone 5 while it was charging. Ma Ailun, 23, was electrocuted in her home in northwestern China on Thursday last week, according to an account of the incident posted on social media.

7. STUART HALL: NEW ASSAULT CLAIMS

Five new claims, including the alleged rape of a 12-year-old girl, have been made against broadcaster Stuart Hall, it has been reported. The former It’s A Knockout presenter, 83, was jailed last month after admitting 14 counts of indecent assault against girls as young as nine between 1967 and 1987.

Stuart Hall: new probe after claim he raped girl aged 12

8. WORLD’S OLDEST CALENDAR FOUND IN UK

Archaeologists believe a series of pits in a field in Aberdeenshire form the world’s oldest lunar calendar, thought to have been created by hunter-gatherers around 10,000 years ago. The pits, at Warren Field near Crathes Castle, were first excavated in 2004 but now a team from the University of Birmingham has dated them.

9. FIVE JAMAICAN ATHLETES TEST POSITIVE

One day after Jamaican sprinter Tyson Gay revealed he had tested positive for a banned substance he could not identify, the Jamaican Anti-Doping Commission has revealed a further five athletes have tested positive. Sprinter Asafa Powell is one of the five, as is relay star Sherone Simpson.

Dark day for athletics as Gay and Powell fail drugs tests

10. HOT TICKET: RETURN OF THE LADYKILLERS

A revival of hit comedy 'The Ladykillers' has opened at the Vaudeville

Theatre, West End. The black comedy, based on an Ealing film, tells the

story of a gang of bank robbers who decide to kill their landlady to keep

their crimes secret. With Simon Day. "Uproarious," says The Independent.

Until 26 October.

West End revival for daft but delightful The Ladykillers