27/04/2014 BBC Newsline

Good evening. Two men have died in separate road

accidents. One of them was the driver of a Mercedes which was in

collision with another car on the Banbridge Road in Dromore. A man

aged in his 40s died when he was hit by a car after getting out of a taxi

on Gilford Road near Portadown. It happened at about 2am this morning.

The police are appealing for witnesses to the accidents.

Hundreds of people have taken part in a protest at Belfast City Hall

about animal abuse. There were calls for councils and politicians here to

put animal rights higher on the agenda. Eunan McConville reports.

Plenty of protesters turned up for this demonstration. There have

certainly been plenty of protests here at City Hall over the recent

past, but this one is very different. Hundreds of people behind

me want more to be done to safeguard animal rights.

How could you abandon this animal? I have cats. These are her dogs. To

think that someone could do that to my cats is unthinkable.

Until they start taking these people to court and making a big thing of

it, why are people going to be afraid to abuse animals?

The crowd was told that Northern Ireland has good animal protection

legislation but that more can be done to implement it. The Welfare of

Animals in Northern Ireland Act was passed in 2011 and, according to the

USPCA, early expectations have not been fulfilled.

This legislation is the best kept secret you could ever come across.

Out of 26 council websites, only one mentions this legislation. There is

total confusion out there. People do not know when to ring, who to ring

or what to do. Northern Ireland is broken up into

five areas and it is up to councils to appoint animal welfare officers

for those areas. The Department of Agriculture is responsible for farm

animals. Whether these protesters will be listened to - only time will

tell. The Taoiseach Enda Kenny has invited

Pope Francis to visit Ireland. He made the request when he met the

Pontiff in Rome at today's double canonisation of Pope John Paul II

and John XXIII. Mr Kenny said that if the invitation was accepted, he

hoped Pope Francis would also travel to Northern Ireland during his

visit. While it is not an official

responsibility of the government, if the Church authority extend an

invitation - this government will do everything to make that visit a real

success. In Gaelic Games there was

disappointment for Derry when they were comprehensively beaten by

Dublin in the National Football League final. The final score was

3-19 to 1-10. In the Division Two decider Monaghan beat Donegal by six

points. Now this week BBC Newsline will be

reporting from Scotland ahead of September's vote on independence.

Our reporter Kevin Magee is in Glasgow.

We will be testing the appetite for Scottish independence, both here in

Ibrox and across the city. At Celtic Park, both sets of supporters have

traditional links with Northern Ireland. Will that influence how

they vote? It is the right time for Scotland to

be Independent and do everything for ourselves.

We are voting no. I am British through and through.

Coverage begins on Radio Ulster in the morning.

Now with a look at the weather forecast.

Good evening. It has been a pretty great day across many parts of

Northern Ireland. This will probably be the last day that we see decent

spells of sunshine. As the week goes on, we are looking at increasing

amounts of cloud with rain and showers. It will also be turning

noticeably colder. Today has been very nice with just one or two

showers close to the south-west. They are fading away and many of us

will experience a dry end to the day. Cloud will be bringing spells

of light and patchy rain from the East. As a result, it is a fairly

mild night, lower than six or seven degrees. Tomorrow will be a cloudy

day with some rain around. Almost anywhere, it could be quite a damp

and murky start. Brighter skies over the northern half of Scotland and

for West Wales and the south-west, but these areas are still prone to a

few showers. Generally cloudy elsewhere across the country. In the

far south of England they are still prone to some heavy, thundery

downpours. In Northern Ireland, not a great deal has changed. We still

have cloudy skies with patches of rain and drizzle breaking out almost

anywhere. Particularly for Northern areas. Not amounting to a great deal

and temperatures are not bad at 13 or 14 degrees. Through the week,

cloud and showers and after Wednesday the temperatures will

fall. We still have a few showers across England and Wales but the

focus transfers to the west. It looks like it will be a bit wetter

across parts of Ireland and Scotland. As we go through the rest

of the week, the temperatures will be coming down.

Our next BBC Newsline bulletin is at 6.25am?. Until then you can keep up

to date with local news on BBC Radio Ulster or on the local news