21/02/2017 BBC Newsline

A man's been charged with manslaughter

following the death of a Belfast man who was injured

22-year-old Conan Anderson suffered a head injury in an incident

at Arthur Lane in the early hours of 6th February.

He was admitted to hospital and died nearly two weeks later.

The 27-year-old man who's been charged will appear

at Belfast Magistrates' Court tomorrow.

Baroness O'Loan has told the House of Lords that the Assembly election

will inevitably result in direct rule.

During a debate on the government's bill to trigger Brexit,

she also said leaving the EU would recreate the border

between north and south and precipitate a border referendum.

We still have shootings and bombings and things like that and so I don't

think we can be complacent and we can suggest

-- cannot suggest there is nothing to worry about.

Brexit will recreate the border north and south.

Borders are by their nature divisive, this border will

attract protest, hostility, violence and significant economic delay.

Other borders across Europe will also

create those delays for those who seek to import from the United

Ironically, this border could be the thing that precipitates

the demand for another referendum on a united Ireland.

Nine people have been arrested by detectives investigating a spate

of arson attacks on the homes and cars of police officers.

The Police Federation has condemned the attacks,

saying they are a clear attempt to bully, intimidate and terrorise.

Catherine Morrison reports from Musgrave Street police station

in Belfast where the group is being questioned.

This all began with a series of early morning raids

in Larne, Lisburn, Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon.

Six men and three women were arrested.

They were brought here to Musgrave Street police

station for questioning on a

number of offences including arson, arson with intent to endanger life

and conspiracy to cause an explosion.

The PSNI has told us the operation is in connection with

targeting serving police officers in arson attacks.

We do not have many details on this but what we do

know is that between April and July of last year, in the Banbridge,

Portadown and Gilford areas, a number of officers had their

vehicles and homes set on fire and in some cases destroyed.

This morning, at the same time as the

arrests were made, searches were carried out and a number

of items taken away for further examination.

The police haven't done any interviews about this

but in a statement, DI Keith Gawley described these as serious,

life endangering attacks on officers and appealed for anyone with any

information about the attacks to contact detectives.

He also revealed there is a drugs links to

the case and these 9 people are also being questioned about possessing

class A, B and C drugs and intending to supply them.

A teenager accused of the manslaughter

of a County Fermanagh boy has pleaded not guilty.

Thirteen year old Oisin McGrath from Belcoo died following a playground

Here's our South-West reporter Julian Fowler.

19-year-old Francis McDermott is accused of unlawfully killing Oisin

When that charge was put to him today he

The McGrath family were in court and heard the defence

solicitor say the case would be conducted in such a way

to minimise their pain as far as possible.

Oisin McGrath was taken to hospital following an incident in

the playground at Saint Michael's College.

At the time of the incident Francis McDermott was in the sixth

A defence lawyer said that an unusual set of circumstances led

to the collapse and death of Oisin McGrath.

He said further expert analysis was required.

The case is said to last three weeks.

Francis McDermott is now a university student and was

Five pipe bombs and ammunition have been found in West Belfast.

The haul was removed by the army from a house in Conway Street.

The police say their search of the property was part

of an investigation into organised criminality linked to the INLA.

The police are treating a petrol bomb attack on a car belonging

on fire at Towerview Crescent in Bangor, last night.

The car, which was parked in the driveway of the family home,

Two masked men were seen in the area at the time.

Sinn Fein have described the incident as an attack

The DUP in the area has asked anyone with information about the attack

The Alliance Party Leader Naomi Long has admitted that she called two

councillors who recently left the party "balloons".

after her party's election manifesto launch Naomi Long also talked

about a newspaper story which reported that Alliance had

encouraged members to ring a BBC election phone-in with what were

She said it was "a storm in a tea cup."

Here is our Political Correspondent Stephen Walker.

Not the headlines you want on the day of our manifesto launch.

The Belfast Telegraph said the Alliance

Party had encouraged members to ring in to the Talkback programme with

easy questions for Naomi Long and suggested they use a fake

Naomi Long said this story was a storm in a teacup and

A BBC spokesman said production teams do their best to

assess each caller to ensure that they contribute

to a fair and balanced discussion.

Separately Naomi Long admitted she described two women as

Women who had recently resigned from the Alliance Party.

I think people would be surprised that all I said was

It was the items in the manifesto she wanted to concentrate on.

She said this election is about choosing

We have been brought here by a scandal

in terms of RHI and how it was handled.

Crucially we were brought here by a breakdown in respect of

The Alliance Party say they have big plans for a

change, including what they see as the abuse of petitions of concern.

They want to introduce a single equality Bill and a special status

They say integrated education should be expanded and they will oppose any

We would hope to hold our MLAs and we

seek opportunities for growth in other areas.

This is not the only election so we are looking forward

to the local council in future elections as well and try to grow

the party outside this firm base we have established.

At the last election the Alliance vote went down and the new leader

says any increase will be regarded as a good result.

And coming up after this bulletin Spotlight will be looking

at the future of Stormont in the second of

in, it is wet gear for many of us and patchy rain will continue. Most

of that rain will have cleared by breakfast time tomorrow.

Temperatures around five or 6 degrees. Not a bad day tomorrow.

Sunshine tomorrow. Westerly winds will continue to bring scattered

showers, but those mainly affect the north coast. The best chance of

seeing any sunshine will be for Northern areas of Ireland and

Britain but across Scotland it will be quite windy with a scattering of

showers. Percent are areas of Ireland and Britain and further

south, a lot of cloud with patchy rain. -- for southern areas. This

rain will sit across Ireland tomorrow, heading north for us

tomorrow evening, preaching Fermanagh by tea-time. That rain

will head across the North, giving us a wet into the day. The Met

Office has issued a weather warning for that rain. Quite a lot of it in

a short time, you could say surface flooding. As temperatures fall back

tonight, there is a likelihood we will sea wintry weather over the

high ground. It is all courtesy of Storm Doris which moves them from

the Atlantic tomorrow evening. It will bring windy conditions on

Thursday, killing bitterly cold, temperatures rise again by the

weekend.