Judge orders closure of US phone spy scheme

WASHINGTON • A US judge ordered the government's bulk phone spying programme to be shut down immediately in a symbolic victory for critics of a programme set to expire in three weeks.

Congress had allowed bulk telephone data - the subject of leaks by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden - to continue until Nov 29.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Ex-soldier arrested over Bloody Sunday killings

LONDON • British police yesterday said they had arrested a former soldier for the Bloody Sunday killings in Londonderry in 1972, one of the worst atrocities in Northern Ireland's three decades of unrest.

It was the first arrest since a murder investigation was opened in 2012 into the killings of 13 civil rights protesters in the streets that day. Another victim died months later of his injuries.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

'Racist' comedian's appeal fails in court

STRASBOURG • The European Court of Human Rights yesterday ruled against the controversial French comedian Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala, deciding that freedom of speech did not protect "racist and anti-Semitic performances".

Dieudonne, as he is commonly known, was protesting against a fine he received from a French court in 2009 for inviting a Holocaust-denier on stage.

He was fined €10,000 (S$15,300) for what that court referred to as "racist insults".

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE