- Leading climate activist released from Vietnam jail
- Ethiopians struggle with bitter pill of currency reform
- Sri Lanka votes in first poll since economic collapse
- Feminist author warns of abortion disaster if Trump wins US election
- US city of Flint still reeling from water crisis, 10 years on
- Arsenal's mean defence faces acid test to shut out Man City again
- Late surge lifts Thailand's Jeeno to LPGA Queen City lead
- DeChambeau says PGA's Ryder Cup decision 'just the start'
- Alcaraz defeated on Laver Cup debut
- Postecoglou embraces 'struggle' to make Spurs a success
- Nice hand 'ashamed' Saint-Etienne 8-0 Ligue 1 mauling
- Boeing CEO says ending strike 'a top priority'
- Stock markets mostly fall after Fed-fueled rally
- Harris slams Trump for hypocrisy on abortion as US starts voting
- Academy to host first overseas ceremony to honor young filmmakers
- No doctor necessary: US okays nasal spray flu vaccine for self-use
- Gurbaz, birthday boy Rashid lead Afghanistan to 177-run rout of South Africa
- Former delivery man Baldwin leads star names at PGA Championship
- Trump shooting: Secret Service admits complacency
- Can an ambitious Milei make Argentina an AI giant?
- Haiti, its suffering growing, in 'race against time': UN expert
- Ibrahim Aqil, the Hezbollah elite unit commander wanted by the US
- Chinese forward Cui signs NBA contract with Brooklyn Nets
- US Fed dissenter calls for 'measured' pace of rate cuts
- Guardiola tells players to lead change over workload as Kompany demands cap on games
- Norway limits wild salmon fishing as stocks hit new lows
- Top Hezbollah commander killed in Israeli strike on Beirut
- Rotterdam fatal knife attacker suspected of 'terrorist motive'
- First early votes cast in knife-edge US presidential election
- Top-ranked Swiatek out of Beijing due to 'personal matters'
- Hard-right Reform UK looks to the future after vote success
- Embiid agrees to NBA contract extension with 76ers
- Joshua aims to complete road to redemption in Dubois bout
- World champion Bagnaia sets pace with lap record at Misano
- Biden says 'working' to get people back to homes on Israel-Lebanon border
- Pope criticises Argentina's crackdown on protesters
- Court limits screenings of videos in France mass rape case
- Gurbaz century takes Afghanistan to 311-4 in 2nd ODI
- Central banks face 'difficult balancing act': IMF chief
- McLaren's Norris sets Singapore pace as struggling Verstappen 15th
- Guardiola tells players to lead change over workload fears
- Paris Olympics sports equipment moves to new homes
- 'Happy' Kinghorn relishing life at Toulouse
- Norris sets Singapore pace as Verstappen only 15th
- 8 dead in Israeli strike, source says Hezbollah commander killed
- Germany to bid to host women's Euro 2029
- Portugal brings deadly forest fires under control
- Postecoglou defends Solanke after slow start to Spurs career
- US nuclear plant Three Mile Island to reopen to power Microsoft
- Arteta urges Arsenal to take next step in Man City showdown
Lawyers for ex-Irish soldier hit out at Facebook in IS terror case
Lawyers for a former Irish soldier accused of being a member of the so-called Islamic State jihadist group on Wednesday criticised Facebook for breaching users' privacy.
Lisa Smith, 40, from Dundalk, on Ireland's east coast, has pleaded not guilty to membership of an unlawful terrorist group between October 28, 2015 and December 1, 2019.
She has also denied funding terrorism by sending 800 euros ($900) to aid medical treatment for a Syrian man in Turkey.
At the Special Criminal Court in Dublin, her lawyer, Michael O'Higgins, objected to the use of Facebook messages that the prosecution is relying on.
And he told a panel of three judges hearing the case that the social networking giant was involved in a "wholesale breach" of privacy rights.
The prosecution has sought to submit as evidence messages Smith sent using Facebook to known Islamist terrorists in Australia dating back to 2012.
"The idea that private conversations can be produced 10 years later and decanted into a court case is a very, very significant incursion on people's right to communicate with each other," O'Higgins said.
"My client has the constitutional right to discuss her political and religious beliefs without someone storing every utterance and storing it so it might be used years later."
The prosecution has told the court that Smith was a member of the Irish Defence Forces from 2001 to 2011 but left after converting to Islam.
Lawyers allege she joined IS and moved to territory it controlled in October 2015, living in Raqqa, the capital of the militants' self-styled caliphate, and married a UK national involved with the group's armed patrols.
She returned to the Irish capital in 2019 after the fall of the extremists' last remaining stronghold and was arrested on arrival with her young daughter at Dublin airport on December 1.
The court has been told the Irish authorities initially received some of the Facebook messages from the United States, following investigations into John Georgelas, a US Muslim convert who is presumed to have died while fighting in Syria.
O'Higgins argued that the US court that first allowed FBI access to Facebook's records had not considered Smith's rights, adding that the subsequent handover of private, sensitive data from the FBI to Irish police is not allowed under Ireland's Data Protection Act.
O.Lorenz--BTB