The opening day of the trial of John Dundon for the murder of Shane Geoghegan saw the accused man taken to hospital for a head injury after earlier telling the court he was illiterate and had sacked his legal team and elected to represent himself.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg today ruled that allegations of security force collusion in the loyalist murders of eight men in South Armagh in the 1970s had not properly been investigated.

The family of murdered Belfast solicitor Patrick Finucane launched new court action against the British government today in a bid to force it to set up a public inquiry immediately into the killing.