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A former soldier is to be charged with murdering a teenager, who was shot twice in the head in Londonderry during the Northern Ireland Troubles.

Fifteen-year-old Daniel Hegarty was killed in an Army operation near his home in the Creggan in July 1972. Last year, the High Court ruled a decision not to prosecute, taken in 2016, was based on « flawed » reasoning.

The Army veteran, known as Soldier B, will also face a second charge of wounding the teenager’s cousin. The move has been welcomed by the Hegarty family.

The Director of Public Prosecutions, Stephen Herron, informed the Hegarty family of developments at a private meeting. He conducted a review of the case following the court ruling.

Mr Herron said he believed the evidence « is sufficient to provide a reasonable prospect of conviction ». In reaching the decision, he added that he had taken Soldier B’s ill health into consideration.

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Overall levels of violence in England and Wales are on the decline, in spite of an increase in knife crime, a study of A&E data suggests.

Analysis by Cardiff University found admissions of patients injured in violent attacks dropped 1.7% in 2018. It indicates a rise in knife crime, gun crime and homicide recorded by police is not part of a wider upsurge.

The study’s authors said the rise of « high harm » crimes amid falling overall violence was « difficult to explain ».

The National Violence Surveillance Network (NVSN) survey has recorded a near consistent downward trend in violent crime since it was launched in 2002, although levels have remained relatively stable in recent years.

Experts analysed data collected from a sample of 126 A&E departments, minor injury units and walk-in centres across Wales and all nine regions of England.

They estimate 187,584 people attended A&E with injuries sustained in violence in 2018 – 3,162 fewer than the previous year.

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Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange has been arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Mr Assange took refuge in the embassy seven years ago to avoid extradition to Sweden over a sexual assault case that has since been dropped.

The Met Police said he was arrested for failing to surrender to the court and following a US extradition request.

Ecuador’s president said it withdrew his asylum after repeated violations of international conventions. But Wikileaks tweeted that Ecuador had acted illegally in terminating Mr Assange’s political asylum « in violation of international law ».

Mr Assange was initially taken to a central London police station before appearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday afternoon. Dressed in a black suit and black polo shirt, he waved to the public gallery and gave a thumbs up. He pleaded « not guilty » to the 2012 charge of failing to surrender to the court.

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A suspected gang leader was shot dead after a dramatic raid on an Austrian airlines plane on the runway at Tirana airport in Albania.

Passengers waiting for the Airbus plane to leave Mother Teresa airport near the capital saw the gang approach security police wielding AK-47 rifles. They are then thought to have entered the plane to steal as much as €10m (£8.5m; $11m) in cash. The gang fled but then ran into a police patrol and opened fire.

Albanian media showed footage of a white van carrying tax agency signs being driven inside the airport fence before the robbery at around 15:00 on Tuesday. It had apparently burst on to the site through a gate used by emergency services. It is thought the masked gang had inside knowledge of the cash cargo that had been loaded on to the plane ahead of its flight to Vienna.

As Albania’s central bank does not accept deposits of hard currency, some locally based foreign banks have to ship foreign currency to Austria by plane. The airport has been targeted by robbers before.

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Police staff have been retrained on stalking cases after a review of how they dealt with a woman murdered by her estranged husband.

Michelle Savage alerted Sussex Police about Craig Savage’s behaviour several times in the three weeks before he shot her dead in St Leonard’s.

A call handler who failed to record her final calls has been given « management advice » following a misconduct hearing. Officers are also being retrained on the police watchdog’s recommendation.

Savage was jailed for a minimum of 38 years for murdering his wife and mother-in-law at their home in St Leonard’s on Sea, East Sussex, in March 2018. The former soldier shot Ms Savage six times and Heather Whitbread seven after he broke in.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said in a report Ms Savage had contacted the police « a number of times » between 26 February and 15 March 2018, telling them her ex was « becoming more and more aggressive ».

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