The Daily: July 18

We scour the news so you don't have to.

The'Kate effect' boosts Princes' charity by £4.2 million
The Duchess of Cambridge has once again proven just how effective her influence is on the public. Latest accounts show that donations to the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry’s charitable foundation have shot up since the Duchess has joined the Royal family. The foundation raised £4.8 million in 2011 compared to the £629,000 in 2010 before the Duke and Duchess had announced their engagement. Additionally, almost £1 million further funds were raised by the US wing of the charity from the Duke and Duchess’s tour of Canada and the US last summer, and during the Royal Wedding season in April last year more than a million pounds worth of donations were made to the charity in the form of wedding presents. The Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry has now been renamed The Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, which demonstrates Kate’s participation and dedication to the charity.

Public invited to submit new words for Collins Online Dictionary
From the 17 July 2012, for the first time to date, anyone will be able to suggest new words to be added to the Collins online dictionary. The publishers have explained that by opening this normally closed process, it will allow the way in which the English Language is modified to be more democratic. Furthermore, if the new word is accepted then the submitter will be presented with the possibility of being permanently credited in the online dictionary below their word’s definition. The Collins editors have already been busy submitting a selection of words from popular demand, such as – “omnishambles” originally used from ‘The Thick Of It’ and recently used by Ed Miliband, “tash-on”, a word used for kissing popularised by the reality TV show ‘Geordie Shore’ and “twitlit”, which is a supposed summary of a classic novel on the social network site ‘Twitter.’ Alex Brown, head of digital at Collins, believes that “it is essential that we keep our ear close to the ground listening out for new words” in order to ensure that “we stay on top of the evolving English language."

‘Clear roads for cyclists on Sundays to improve health’
In a bid to promote healthy living and exercise experts have suggested that the streets of British cities should be closed to cars on Sunday mornings in order to clear the road for cyclists, walkers and roller skaters. Professor Gregory Heath, of the University of Tennesse, said that shutting the streets on Sundays to vehicles would make a “big statement” in regard to encouraging citizens to do more exercise. Currently, Britain’s rate of adults participating in the recommended level of exercise is below the US, with 63.3% of British adults falling short compared to the 41% of Americans. This idea has been successful in Colombia where motivating people to exercise has prevailed due to the vehicle ban on Sunday mornings.

British Museum to showcase copy of Shakespeare’s works from Robben Island
The new exhibition at the British Museum – Shakespeare: Staging the World – will display a copy of the Complete Works of Shakespeare, known as the Robben Island Bible, which was used by apartheid-era ANC prisoners including Nelson Mandela. This copy was passed from cell to cell and read secretly due to Venkatrathnam, who was a prisoner from 1972-9, managing to smuggle it into the jail. He passed it around the prisoners and asked them to sign their favourite sections. Nelson Mandela’s signature can be found next to the passage from Julius Caesar: “Cowards die many times before their deaths.” There are 32 signatures altogether. The book is one of more than 190 objects in the show, which is open from 19-25 July at the British Museum, London.

A Hero story
A video has captured the dramatic and tense moment when a 7-year-old Keyla McCree fell from her third-floor bedroom window in Brooklyn, New York. Luckily, she fell into the arms of a neighbour. The little girl had been dancing on top of an air-conditioning unit when she accidentally lost her footing and plummeted towards the concrete underneath. Steve St Bernard, 52, a bus driver, had looked up at the girl when he had heard her singing. The video shows Mr St Bernard positioning himself beneath the window in case she fell, he told the New York Daily News that he prayed that he would catch her as he was “right underneath her.” The girl managed to come out of the incident unharmed but her rescuer was treated for a torn tendon in his left bicep.