Monday, August 1, 2011

Men assaulted and robbed by gang

27 July 2011 Last updated at 10:30 GMT Two men have been injured after being assaulted and robbed by a group of people in Portrush.

It happened at Causeway Street in the town at about 11:15 BST on Tuesday. Police said a number of people, both male and female, were involved.

It is believed one man suffered head injuries and the other man a laceration to his head. Neither's injuries are thought to be life-threatening.

Police have appealed for witnesses to contact them.


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Pipe bomb found in Crossgar alert

31 July 2011 Last updated at 08:46 GMT Police cordon Police cordoned off an area of Crossgar on Saturday morning A pipe bomb has been discovered in a County Down village after a security alert on Saturday.

People living near the scene of the alert at Drumnaconagher Road, Crossgar, were asked to leave their homes after a suspicious object was found.

Army bomb experts carried out a controlled explosion and confirmed it was a pipe bomb.

Meanwhile, the Army removed a suspected firearm at Blackstown Road in Crumlin on Friday evening.

A police spokesperson said the item was found wrapped in bed linen.


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Man held on loyalist murder freed

30 July 2011 Last updated at 19:04 GMT Bobby Moffett Bobby Moffett's murder has been blamed on the UVF A 55-year-old man arrested on Saturday by detectives investigating the murder of Bobby Moffett has been released without charge.

Police said he was detained in the north Belfast area on Saturday morning.

Mr Moffett, a former loyalist prisoner, was shot dead by two masked gunmen on the Shankill Road in May last year.

The International Monitoring Commission said the killing was sanctioned by the UVF. A number of people have been arrested but no-one has been charged.

The leader of the UVF-linked Progressive Unionist Party, Dawn Purvis, resigned from the party in protest at the murder.


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Long reach

28 July 2011 Last updated at 16:11 GMT Jim Fitzpatrick By Jim Fitzpatrick BBC NI Politics Show presenter Building site Nama controls a number of property developments, some complete and others unfinished The Republic of Ireland's so-called bad bank, the National Asset Management Agency, has released details of properties it has repossessed.

But what does it tell us about the agency's impact north of the border?

Whenever the great property crash hit Ireland at the end of 2007, the Irish banks were stuck with billions of pounds of loans secured on property that was worth a lot less than those loans.

With so much bad debt the banks couldn't function, so the government created the National Asset Management Agency - Nama.

It relieved the banks of the burden, but passed it on to Irish taxpayers.

Now Nama manages billions of debt on a vast array of property connected to Irish banks in the Republic, Northern Ireland and further afield.

Previously Nama has said that it had taken over ?3.5bn of property loans in Northern Ireland. On Thursday we got a first glimpse of that.

The agency has published a list of properties whose developers they have put into receivership. There are houses, sites, a factory and even a pub.

Every county in Northern Ireland now has Nama-controlled properties.

The vast-majority - 49 - are in County Down. That's down to one developer whose properties feature for sale in the latest Belfast Telegraph property section.

Huge slump

Two full pages are from this Nama stable - you can pick up a shell apartment for ?40,000 or a seven bedroom home in Dromore, previously marketed for close to ?1m, for a mere ?400,000.

Why does this matter?

The property market in Northern Ireland is in a huge slump. Nama controls more property here than anyone else - by a mile.

The big worry for local politicians was that Nama might sell everything at a knock-down price.

That is not happening - because it is not in Nama's interests to do so.

But effectively Nama sets the level of the Northern Ireland property market so every move it makes is carefully watched and scrutinised.

Thursday's detail is just the tip of the iceberg as it includes only cases of enforcement action.

Many developers with multi-million pound loans are still trading away because Nama have judged that's the best chance they have of getting some money back at some stage.

So we have much, much more to learn about Nama and its ultimate impact on the value of not just these properties, but every home, office building, and piece of land in Northern Ireland.


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Man accused of sex attack on girl

26 July 2011 Last updated at 13:46 GMT Bishop Street courthouse Bishop Street courthouse A Londonderry man has been charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl in the city on Sunday night.

James Gallagher, 62, from St Columb's Wells, is accused of assaulting the girl at Bay Road.

His solicitor told Londonderry Magistrates' Court that his client said it was consensual and that he thought the girl was aged 17 or 18.

Bail was refused and the defendant was remanded in custody for a videolink hearing in three weeks' time.


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Titanic teenager gets headstone

29 July 2011 Last updated at 05:17 GMT Belfast City Cemetery The headstone will go up in Belfast City Cemetery A teenager thought to have been the first victim of the Titanic has finally been given a headstone on his grave.

Samuel Scott, 15, fractured his skull whilst working on the ship in 1910. His body has since lain in an unmarked grave in Belfast City Cemetery.

However, a new headstone was unveiled there on Saturday as part of the Feile an Phobail festival.

A new children's book, Spirit Of The Titanic, used the teenager as its main character.

The book, published earlier this year, follows the boy's ghost as it haunts the decks of the ship during its voyage.


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GAA coma man's family in appeal

29 July 2011 Last updated at 17:38 GMT Mark McGovern Mark McGovern has been in a coma since the match The family of a gaelic footballer who has been in a coma since a match in the US last month want the opposing team to be suspended from all competitions.

Mark McGovern, 20, from Belcoo in Fermanagh, suffered a head injury in an off-the-ball incident in San Francisco.

His parents and three sisters have maintained a vigil at his hospital bedside for the last five weeks.

They claim the Celts, the team Mark was playing against, are not cooperating fully with the San Francisco police.

In a statement, the Celts said: "The San Francisco Celts continue to hold Mark McGovern and his family in their thoughts and prayers.

"The San Francisco Celts have been, and will continue to co-operate with all investigations regarding the incident."

A GAA spokesman said that the GAA felt it would be inappropriate to comment while there was still an ongoing investigation.

Mark's father, Danny, said he was saddened by what he said was a lack of co-operation from the Celts team.

"They're (the police) getting good co-operation from Mark's team but from the opposing team there's none of them coming up with information.

"They have videos and they're not bringing them up at all," Mr McGovern said.

"I have done my best this week to get them barred completely from playing football.

"They played a football match the following week after Mark's injury.

Continue reading the main story
We're here every day, seven days a week sitting at his bedside being confident and being strong around him because we feel that he knows we are there”

End Quote Sister of coma victim Mark McGovern "I do believe the president of the GAA is flying out to see Mark next Tuesday. We'll put pressure on him to get them suspended."

Mark arrived in the USA for a three-month stint with Ulster San Francisco the week before he was injured.

He was accompanied by two other members of his team Belcoo O'Rahilly's. The opposing Celts side is made up mostly of US-born players.

'Signs of improvement'

Mark was given immediate medical assistance at the scene after he was injured and put into a medically induced coma, from which he has yet to emerge.

Danny said he had shown slight signs of improvement.

"Mark has improved slightly. As they say in the hospital baby steps every day in the right direction," he said.

Mark's sister Connie said the family would stay with him until they could bring him home.

"We're here every day, seven days a week sitting at his bedside being confident and being strong around him because we feel that he knows we are there," she said.


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