SIX COUNTIES: A judge is set to decide next Wednesday on the admissibility of “decisive” evidence in the prosecution of a former paratrooper (Soldier F) for two murders in Derry in 1972.

It comes after three days of submissions at Belfast Crown Court following a hearsay application by the prosecution to admit a number of statements made by other soldiers on the ground during the shootings known as Bloody Sunday.

The defence and prosecution have argued over the admissibility of the other soldiers’ statements since they were given under military orders.

ESWATINI: A group of about 100 pro-democracy activists protested today outside at the US embassy in South Africa against their government’s deal to receive five people deported by the US.

The activists likened the arrangement to human trafficking, and said their country’s absolute monarch, King Mswati III, entered into the deal without consulting parliament.

They also alleged he is secretly obtaining benefits from the arrangement that are not being shared with the Eswatini people.

UNITED NATIONS: A security council resolution aimed at halting the reimposition of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme failed today, after weeks of last-ditch diplomatic talks.

The resolution put forth by South Korea, the current president of the 15-member council, did not garner the support of the nine countries required to halt the series of sanctions from taking effect at the end of the month, as outlined in Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Only four countries — China, Russia, Pakistan and Algeria — supported the effort.

FRANCE: President Emmanuel Macron welcomed today the arrest this week in the occupied West Bank of a key Palestinian suspect in a 1982 terror attack in Paris, calling it the result of “excellent co-operation” with the Palestinian Authority.

The suspect, Hicham Harb, 70, was one of France’s most wanted men and a fugitive for decades. He is accused of overseeing the militants who stormed the Jo Goldenberg restaurant on Rue des Rosiers on August 9 1982, in a machine-gun and grenade attack that killed six people and wounded 22.