Your Tuesday evening catch-up
IRELAND
The funerals of five victims of the Carrickmines fire have taken place in Co Wicklow. A message from Pope Francis was read out at the requiem mass in which the pontiff expressed his "deep sadness over the terrible tragedy". Willie Lynch, his partner Tara Gilbert; their children Jodie and Kelsey; and Willie’s brother Jimmy have now been laid to rest in Bray this afternoon.
The findings of an independent report on paramilitary activity in the North “entirely and totally” vindicates a withdrawal from the power-sharing political institutions, the Ulster Unionists have said. Leader Mike Nesbitt said the assessment garnered from the police and intelligence agencies in the UK made clear the existence of the IRA.
A Cork man has been convicted of raping an acquaintance after waking her up by slapping her in the face, following a party at her home. The now 33-year-old woman had earlier told the Central Criminal Court jury that her attacker had warned her if she wanted to see her son again she should do as he told her. He then instructed her to take off her pants, get back on her bed and put her face in her pillow.
A judge has thrown out a prosecution against a 90-year-old Dublin woman who faced court and a hefty legal bill for having an "unauthorised" satellite dish on the front of her house. Great grandmother, Anne Rudd, of St Enda’s Road, Terenure, was forced to come to court after she was summoned by Dublin City Council which had sought an order for legal costs.
WORLD
Thousands of refugees have flooded into Slovenia, as the country and Croatia traded accusations over who is to blame for the exodus that has overwhelmed the Balkans and shaken the European Union to its core. Slovenian police on horseback and in riot gear surrounded hundreds of newcomers in a muddy field near the border village of Rigonce, herding them on nine mile trek to the nearest overcrowded reception area. Some of the refugees wrapped themselves in blankets to ward off the cold.
It is one of the most controversial pictures in history —a backyard photo of Lee Harvey Oswald showing him holding the same type of rifle used to assassinate US president John F Kennedy. And now a new analysis has found that the picture is authentic.
