05/03/2016 BBC Newsline

Two men, aged 66 and 19, have been arrested after a stolen

fire engine crashed into houses and cars in Larne.

It ended up wedged against a house on the Glenarm Road in the town

Surreal, the set of a disaster movie, totally unbelievable. The

words residents of the road used to describe the scene outside their

front doors. They woken shortly after four this morning by a series

of loud bangs, it took some time to work out exactly what it happened on

their street. I looked out, I can believe my eyes. There was a fire

engine in my front garden. It was dark, I looked over at the carnage

of the cars that were littered on the road. Smashed. Pulled my

dressing gown, came downstairs and it's hard to take in. Stolen and

driven out of all Larne, it went on the career of this road tossing cars

out of its way before ending up in a garden jammed against the front

door. In the dark of night, the situation was difficult to work out.

I thought somebody was trying to break in and then I saw the fire

engine. The lights were pulsing. I thought, crikey, there's an

explosion because... How do they get here so quickly? You survey the

scene and eating goodness me, what has happened? That's your car on its

roof. Perfectly nice car and ready for the MOT next week. That's it. It

won't be passing the MOT. For some people living at the far end of the

street, they've been told they can't return home until a structural

engineer assesses the damage. For many others living on the street,

they've been on the telephone this morning to their insurance companies

wondering who will pay for what happened here last night. Priced

from the side of the house and taken away, the fire engine may be gone

but the memories of what happened here last night will live long in

the minds of the residents of the road.

The priest at the funeral of murdered Belfast man

Stephen Carson says his family have had their lives torn

Father Brendan Smyth was speaking at Requiem Mass at Holy Trinity

Mr Carson, who was 28, died after he was shot in the head

at a house at Walmer Street in south Belfast last month.

His fiancee and two sons were among the mourners.

The main line of inquiry for police is that Mr Carson was shot as part

of a criminal feud but a detective said he had been trying

The Ulster Unionist Party has voted to remain in the European Union.

The party's policy-making body voted overwhelmingly to stay in Europe

at a special meeting of its executive committee

in Templepatrick, though party leader Mike Nesbitt said individual

members can vote as they see fit on the issue.

The Ulster Unionist Party thinks it is in Northern Ireland's best

interest to in Europe but with United Kingdom government pressing

for more reform returning to the founding principle of free trade and

getting away from this idea of further political union and that's

the proposition that we debated and agreed upon today.

The Alliance leader David Ford says it's time for other parties

at Stormont to end what he calls their delay, fudge and waffle

and to move faster towards building a united community.

Mr Ford was addressing his party's annual conference,

from where our Political Editor Mark Devenport now reports.

Last year, Naomi Long lost alliances on the Westminster seat but instead

of engaging in a postmortem, delegates applauded for increasing

her vote the place of the unionist pact. She criticises slow pace of

change at Stormont. One step forward, two steps back. It's finals

to strict we come dancing but is no way to run a country. David Ford

pointed out some entitled to vote in May went even born when the Good

Friday agreement was reached 18 years ago. A generation that has

grown up while political leaders squabble and squander their chances.

The agreement is no longer fragile young child or a teenager, it is

about to reach its majority and it's long past time that politicians in

Northern Ireland step forward and letters all move forward and faster.

With Naomi Long likely to return to Stormont, alliance will have no

difficulty in making its voice heard in the assembly in the future.

Whether it get any more MLAs and has the moment is more open to question.

The Met Office have issued an early warning for ice in untreated areas

Here's Barra with a full forecast for you.

Hello. It hasn't been too bad they start of the weekend but it will

turn chilly so if you're heading out tonight you will want to wrap up

warm. Clear sky will love the bridge is the fault of freezing fray while,

perhaps blowing sunspots allowing a widespread frost to develop. A

chilly start to the Sunday but not a bad one. They will be dry, some

sunshine but through the day it will turn unsettled from the West. To

begin with, there will be a frost out there. Quite chilly, sunshine by

cloud will thicken from the rest by mid-morning and that cloud will

bring wet weather to western areas. Across Britain it is dry foremost,

sunshine coming and going and it looks set to stay largely dry

through the day. Violent, as that wet weather nudges eastwards meeting

cold air, some will fall asleep than snow especially for the hills and

mountains. For Northern Ireland it looks like eastern areas will fare

best on Sunday staying largely dry the temperatures for 5 degrees, a

chilly northerly breeze. As we go into Monday, it there will be more

low pressure in control. There will be unsettled at times with damp

weather staying grey, and the north-westerly wind, temperatures up

to six or 7 degrees. They will stay cloudy overnight into Tuesday and

for Tuesday and enter the middle of next week more low-pressure in

control so it will be unsettled times but it won't be as cold as it

has been recently. Keep you up-to-date.

You can keep up to date with local news on BBC Radio Ulster

From everyone on the BBC Newsline team, goodbye.