01/12/2015 BBC Newsline

and on BBC One we now join the BBC's news teams where you are.

Good evening, the headlines on BBC Newsline:

A Dungiven man targeted in a pipe bomb attack says he doesn't

The principals of four Bangor schools write to parents warning

them some of their children are being sold drugs.

What has startled us of the most has been the approach of a year it boy.

And 11 or 12-year-old. That is frightening for myself and my

colleagues. The scam which robbed one

pensioner of her life savings. Two people remain critically ill

after a car crashes into a film Our broadband coverage is getting

better, but there's still big regional differences within

Northern Ireland. The ties that bind Belfast and

Boston, as American colleges' ice And it's been

an incredibly mild start to December - I'll have a full forecast

for you later in the programme. A man who was targeted in an

overnight pipe-bomb attack says he The device was left on the doorstep

of the family home in Dungiven. His partner and their two-year-old

daughter were inside at the time. With more details, here's our

North-West reporter, Keiron Tourish. It's understood that a pipe bomb was

left on the doorstep of this family home at Ard Na Smoll in Dungiven

sometime yesterday evening. The alert was raised

when a neighbour noticed two wheelie bins on fire

and called the emergency services. The victim

of the attack says his partner and their two-year-old daughter were

in the house at the time. It is terrifying, they thought that

what could have happened. I am glad it didn't happen. I have been

standing here in a shell of a person at the minute. It really hit me this

morning. We don't cause anybody harm. Try to be nice to everybody.

The police say the lives of the local fire fighters were also

put at risk when they arrived to deal with the fire.

A sister of the victim says those who carried

it out could have killed a mother and her two-year-old daughter.

I think it is really sick. My family lives in that house and somebody

tries to kill them. They are terrified and scared like anyone

else would be if someone was setting a bomb outside your house. I could

have lost my family. It is really sad thinking about it.

The police are still investigating a motive for this latest attack.

Two other incidents where devices were found in the Dungiven area this

month have been blamed on dissident republicans.

I am saying to these groups, sit down and analyse what they are doing

to their own community. There are 150 houses here. Ask the people in

these houses. Police have praised it patients of local people and have

issued an appeal for information. They want to appeal to anyone who

noticed any suspicious activity in or around this area last night to

get in touch. Garda searches related to dissident

republicans are going on in County Monaghan,

where assault rifles, mortars Gardai say it was a "significant

find" just outside Scotstown. The searches follow the arrest

of a 43-year-old man last week. He was later charged with IRA

membership. The principals of four schools

in Bangor have written to parents warning them that some of

the students are being sold drugs. The police are investigating reports

that it's happening Here's our Education Correspondent,

Robbie Meredith. It's a place used by hundreds of

people every day to get to and from school but it is also a place where

children as young as 11 have been offered drugs. In a letter sent out

to parents yesterday and published this morning in the Belfort

telegraph, headteachers said drug abuse was becoming a serious

problem. They said the PSNI it had recently received reports that year

Eight pupils had been approached by people not at the school nearby.

This is a community issue. Not just one school. Four schools,

approximately 4000 pupils across these goals. At the bus station, a

lot of people go through that every day. It is important for the local

community and parents to solve this problem. It was parents at Bangor

Grammar school who first noticed this was happening. We noticed the

approach of a year Eight boy. And 11 or 12-year-old. But as for myself,

and reputable colleagues, very frightening. Now she wants more

action from the police. Realistically PSNI funds have been

cut and possibly this is one of the areas of casualties. Over there to

see much more visibility. The bus station is very busy first thing in

the morning, late afternoon, servicing our four schools and the

wider area. That basic visibility would be a necessity. PSNI officers

won't have to go far to try and stop schoolchildren being offered drugs

here because it has been happening right across the road from Bangor's

police station. I understand the concerns that led to this letter and

I ask people to contact us and the schools to help us with our

resources, to kick drugs out of circulation. Will you be mounting

more patrols in the area? We do it based on the threat to public and

how we can best target our resources intelligently to keep people safe.

While it is shocking that drugs are being dealt to such young children,

schools hope that by highlighting this, it will make schools, parents,

pupils and police more vigilant. Members of a loyalist flute band

have successfully appealed convictions for provocatively

playing a sectarian tune outside Charges had been brought against

the 12 members of the Young Conway Volunteers, following an incident

during a 12th of July parade. This is the incident

which led to the 13 men being accused of a provocative act likely

to cause public disorder. They denied playing a rendition

of the Famine Song. Instead,

they claimed to have been performing The band leader on the day

of the parade was the only one He said they'd been forced to stop

outside the church because He said they started up the Beach

Boys tune to ward off lethargy. On April 13,

defendants were all convicted. Three of them receiving five-month

suspended prison sentences. A challenge to the convictions was

due to be heard in court today. Prosecutors did not oppose

the band members' challenge to That was because they agreed to

keep the peace for two years. If they don't abide by that,

they could be jailed Scams cost Northern Ireland

economy an estimated ?100 million To warn others, a victim who was

robbed of her life savings of ?180,000 has taken a courageous step

in telling what happened to her. She's been speaking to the

BBC Spotlight reporter Chris Moore. This is Elizabeth. We are not using

her full name. She is a 75-year-old widow and she has lost her life

savings. It is like being hypnotised. You're going to be

winning this big amount of money and you will be able to buy what you

want when you get it. Elizabeth first fell victim to a mail scam.

Here's how it works. You receive a letter like this one which appears

to guarantee you a cash sum of ?20,000. It could be as much as a

quarter of a quarter of ?1 million. This one,, ?3 million. It is all

yours for ?25 which you are invited to send in a pre-addressed envelope

provided. The PSNI say once the money has been mailed, there was

little hope of ever seeing it again. They say this is an advanced payment

fraud. We will follow the money trail, but very often, invariably,

that money is moved and it is dissipated and dispersed many times

over through multiple bank accounts which eventually become untraceable.

Scammers share details of their victims, and soon Elizabeth was the

subject of a telephone scam that over ?103,000. The first caller said

he was David. He said he was a judge working on behalf of what he

described as the Ministry of Justice. Professor Stephen Lee from

Exeter University has studied scam victims and the scammers. Anyone can

fall victim to a scam. If you've got something to lose, there is someone

out there who is trying to kick it off you. Scams cost Northern Ireland

and estimated ?100 million per year. And you can see more on that

Spotlight story on BBC One at The DUP will have a new leader in

just over a fortnight. The The party has released some detail

on how it intends to replace Peter Robinson. Mark Devenport is at

Stormont. How will this pan out? Peter Robinson's successor will be

chosen by the DUP's 46 most senior elected citadels. MLAs, MPs and

solitary MEP. Nominations are now open. Of two of the members of the

so-called electrical college. -- electoral college. You can go ahead

on the evening of December the 17th in East Belfast. Whoever is picked

will be ratified by the slightly bigger DUP executive also on that

same evening. When it comes to frontrunners, any surprises? I don't

think so. The hot money is all on the current deputy leader Nigel

Dodds. If he does get the job, they will have to be a separate election

at a different time for the deputy leadership post. Peter Robinson will

remain as First Minister until the New Year. We're not expecting him to

be replaced until then. The favoured for that job is the current Finance

Minister Arlene Foster. Thank you. The Health Minister has said there

are concerns that the courts are "seeking to make law

and trying to almost usurp His comment follows yesterday's

High Court finding that the abortion The Assembly must now take

a fresh look at the legislation to Andy West assesses

what may happen next. Northern Ireland's abortion laws are

currently based on the Offences Since then, there have been slight

changes through the courts, but still it is illegal

in NI to have an abortion unless the woman's life is at risk, or

there is a permanent or serious risk But some will see yesterday's ruling

from the judge Mr Justice Horner as putting pressure on the Assembly

to change legislation to also allow a termination

following rape or incest or if there He said the current law was

in breach of Article Eight of In reality, what kind of weight

does his ruling really carry? He said yesterday,

"This court is not being asked to Does that mean a judge's ruling is

powerless to force It cannot force the Government to

change the law except it can put heavy pressure on the Government by

saying if you pursue the line you are currently adopting, you will be

in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights and the European

Court of Human Rights is likely to come out and confirm that. Are you

going to continue to violate European Convention law, terribly

embarrassing. Embarrassing or not,

the final decision on changing And that's only

if politicians believe a change The law as it currently stands can

permit termination of pregnancy in certain limited circumstances

including fatal fatal abnormalities or sexual crimes where there is an

impact on the mother's physical health or a long-term mental health.

Whether the law needs to be changed or not, the Health Minister says

the Assembly won't be pressured by the courts.

We would be concerned that we have a situation where the courts are

seeking to make law in Northern Ireland and almost usurped the

Democratic recess and the will of people in Northern Ireland through

the ballot box and people they lacked in Stormont. Elect.

In the meantime, doctors and midwives are waiting

for draft guidelines from the Department of Health on

where they stand while the political and legal process rolls on.

The Department of Justice says it's considering

an appeal against yesterday's ruling, as is the Attorney General -

In a fortnight's time, the High Court will make its

decision on whether new abortion legislation needs to be written.

But it's clear that whatever it rules, there's no guarantee that

the law will be changed quickly or, indeed, at all.

For the time being, women seeking an abortion

in cases of fatal foetal abnormality or following a sexual crime must

Two people are still in intensive care in hospital

following last night's incident in South Belfast when a car drove into

As Maggie Taggart reports, the car crashed through a metal

A Belfast film production company had been working

on a crime reconstruction for an RTE television programme.

They were using young actors from a local extras agency, and working

As they stood at the junction of Falcon Road and Apollo Road,

A major incident was declared and witnesses say the emergency

One described the scene as horrifying

We were able to respond because other ambulances from out of town or

at the Royal Victoria Hospital and were able to assist at the scene.

When the crash happened at 8:30pm last night, witnesses said that many

people were pushed through the metal railings at the bakery here. A few

workers were on their smoke break and ran to help those who were

injured. Two people remained critically ill in intensive care. It

is understood one suffered fractures and facial injuries and was in

theatre for five hours. Two others were in a stable condition and two

others have been released from hospital. A man was arrested but

released pending further enquiries. Police have looked at security

footage from the bakery security cameras. RTE confirmed that an

independent production company had been filming on their behalf that

night. They say they cannot comment further but that the thoughts are

with those involved and the affected families. News coming in this

evening of a serious crash on the main A-1 road between Newry and

Belfast. Three vehicles are involved. The road is closed. Police

are asking goods vehicles drivers heading south to use the rough

Ryland Rogue rather than small rural groups. -- rough Ryland.

A new report by the communications regulator has highlighted big

regional differences in Northern Ireland when it comes to broadband.

Our Business Correspondent, Julian O'Neill,

has been looking at the black spots for that and mobile phone coverage.

Ofcom says 7% of Northern Ireland is classed as a notspot, somewhere you

It's not quite that bad in Warrenpoint,

but it can be unpredictable, leading to frustration if the phone

With modern-day communications, everybody is reliant on mobiles and

3G, having e-mail on their phone. Not having good reception is

critical for all the businesses in this area. You don't want to miss a

sales call. Ofcom says our notspot problem is

not that bad compared to the UK as a whole, nor it seems is our broadband

coverage, now available to 77% Generally,

our broadband picture is improving. Ofcom says average download

speeds increased by 19% in 2015. And at their poorest in the

Fermanagh and Omagh Council area. Relative to the other nations in the

UK, we do quite well. We are ahead of Scotland and just behind Wales in

terms of superfast broadband coverage. For mobiles we are a bit

worse off and a lot of that is to do with issues in terms of investment

and planning when networks were rolled out here.

Access to the internet also got easier on smartphones

in the course of the last year, as mobile operators improved

4G has started rolling out in urban areas, while Ofcom says 3G

coverage on networks has spread to take in 73% of Northern Ireland.

A new screening programme for babies is being trialled

The test aims to pick up congenital heart defects that wouldn't be found

It's hoped this will double the number of cases diagnosed, and

This little man is called Tony McCoy - he's no relation to the jockey.

But at just a few days old, he's in the spotlight.

The reason - a heart-screening test which is now

being done routinely at Daisy Hill Hospital's maternity unit.

It's the first hospital here to introduce

Babies throughout Northern Ireland get all these tests. They get

checked for hearing, limbs, etc. To be honest, I have never heard of any

babies dying of defective hearing but I have heard of babies dying of

undiagnosed heart conditions. I feel that the heart should be a mandatory

check. The test uses a simple relatively

inexpensive unit to detect oxygen Anything above 95% is deemed ok -

below that, and further tests will At the moment, many cases

of congential heart disease aren't Two thirds of them will have gone

home healthy looking, but still have congenital heart disease not picked

up. With this new screening, we hope that we can increase the rate of

pick-up up to three quarters of the babies who would be managed early,

the parents will know about it early and the outcome will be much better.

Five-year-old Terence McPolin is the picture of health now,

but just days after he left hospital as a baby, he had to be taken to

hospital in London for emergency surgery due to a heart defect.

It was a traumatic experience for his family.

If Daisy Hill hadn't have known that before he had left the hospital,

things could have been done a lot quicker. -- had have known. This

pilot programme will run until next September. After that it is hoped it

will be rolled out across the trust. College ice hockey proved such

a success over the weekend, Yes - the first annual

Friendship Four tournament at the SSE Arena in Belfast proved

to be a success with both local ice hockey fans and the TV networks

in Canada and North-East America. So, the plan now is to do

it all again in 2016. Two days, four games, over 20,000

spectators. The River Hawks from Massachusetts emerged as the first

ever winners of the Bell pot. The event was such a success, plans are

already in place to do it all again next year. People over here don't

really get how big a deal college hockey or college sports are in the

US. For us to have achieved an event with a taxi favour points, those

college teams came up home gates at home to come to Belfast. So, for

me, the city needs to be incredibly proud, we are a sporting city. We

have had many big sporting events here. Why not keep going, because we

are setting ourselves a reputation across North America as being able

to deliver these types of events. And the organisers are keen to keep

up the Boston connection. Absolutely. The genesis of the

concept was born out of the Boston Belfast agreement. There are a lot

of good hockey teams in Boston and we would like to get them back

here, so, absolutely, we will go across to Boston in February and we

are hoping we will be able to announce that they are playing next

year. After this year's Friendship Four, there should be no shortages

of colleges willing to make the trip across the Atlantic.

Antrim's Mark Allen is out of the UK Snooker Championship in York.

The world number 11 has missed out on a place in the fourth round

after he was beaten this afternoon by Martin Gould of England

Which means Allen misses out on an all-Northern Irish clash with

He made it into the last 16 with a 6-1 victory

There was a lot of positive noise from Croke Park

today aimed at promoting and growing the sport of hurling.

Beyond the traditional strongholds in Munster and Leinster,

the game only truly thrives in pockets in the Ards Peninsula,

But plans are afoot to change all that.

For those who play it, there is nothing quite like hurling, but

beyond the six or seven counties that can win an all Ireland title,

many now suggest hurling is the sixth sibling of the GAA. In Belfast

the game has flat line. Antrim last contested a senior all Ireland final

in 1989. Occasional spikes since. Now comes a plan. We need to protect

the game where it is strong and growing in many other areas and

develop the game. Based on all of that we have unashamedly come down

on the side that we will concentrate on youth development. The need to

play more games. This new competition, every county in Ireland

will take part under 17, it will cut will travel the number of games that

children at that age group will play. The critical thing is ensuring

that club players know who, when and where. They have a schedule of games

and the balance between the club and county schedule. They have to

optimise that balance. We have to bring certainty to fixtures and

people have been out who, when and where as I have said, to be able to

plan their lives. If we succeed in that we will do a good day 's work.

The ambition and three-year plan aims to have the hurling landscape

revitalised by 2018. Cricket, Ireland's women had a

seven-wicket win over Zimbabwe today Beat Scotland next,

and they'll book a place Speaker that is the sport. You may

have noticed some flashes on screen. A

Now let's get a look at the weather forecast.

It is looking very mild tonight. Incredibly mild for the start of

December. Temperatures were up into the mid-teens across parts of County

Down. That is probably 10 Celsius up on yesterday and well above the

average for this time of year. Not really surprising. One of our

weather watchers spotted this rose in full bloom in South Belfast.

Another surprise, that contrasts big time with this night, five years

ago. 2010, there is me going for a temperature of -10 Celsius in parts

of Tyrone. It big change tonight. No frost. Not too bad initially

tonight. Lots of dry spells but during the early hours rain was

weeping from the West. It will be raining first thing tomorrow

morning. But as heavy as this morning and it won't last too long.

It looks like a good part of the day will be pretty decent. At first it

is quite mild. First thing in the morning it is damp, drizzly but that

is when the across County Down, Armagh and parts of Belfast. West,

it is drier weather pushing through. As those clearer skies, long,

temperatures will start to fall. If anything, temperatures will be

highest first thing. Through the afternoon, probably settling around

eight or nine Celsius. Dropping down towards this time tomorrow night.

Cold tomorrow night. Frost in places. Not the minus ten suites of

five years ago but temperatures could get down to minus one or minus

two. Pretty frosty. He made it to scrape the car windscreen but much

of the day will be dry with sunshine and light winds. More like you would

expect it to be like at this time of year, temperatures close to average.

Cold again on Thursday night and then towards the weekend, things get

more unsettled. Low pressure close by. Rain and wind are close by. The

next couple of days at least, it is looking fairly dry. But as you

weather this evening. Just an update on that crash on the day one. Three

people have been injured in a 2 vehicle head-on collision. More

details on that on our late summary here on BBC One at 10:25pm. You can

also keep in touch with us on Facebook and Twitter. From BBC

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