By Alan Healy
Deputy Editor
COMMUNITY leaders in the Creggan area have warned parents to ensure their children keep away from the local reservoir during the current spell of good weather.
It comes after a 10-year-old boy died after he was rescued from River Bann in the Co Down village of Hilltown on Wednesday evening.
Daniel Andre was pulled [...]

The Ulster Defence Association (UDA) will not receive public money in exchange for destroying weapons, the North’s deputy First Minister said today.
Martin McGuinness ruled out any payments after the loyalist paramilitary group said it had begun the decommissioning process.
The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Red Hand Commando (RHC) added it had put all its arms [...]

MORE than 26,000 items of alcohol during a crackdown on underage drinking Derry in the past year, the PSNI has claimed.
As well seizing the alcohol, police said they had also spoke to up to 1,000 underage drinkers on people drinking in public as part of Operation Snapper.
The police initiative, which began last July, will again [...]

By Johnny Craig
A snake is on the loose in Derry.
The three foot long albino snake remains unaccounted for after it was first sighted in a Rosemount chemist on Friday afternoon.
Staff and customers of the Clear Pharmacy on Rosemount Avenue were left hisssterical when the snake was spotted by a customer in the household section of [...]

A 33-year-old man has been remanded in custody accused of indecently exposing himself to primary school children in Eglinton last week.
Adam Carroll who normally resides in London had been over staying with his mother last Tuesday when the incident alleged occurred.
Police were contacted shortly after 8.30am after two girls from primary six reported seeing the [...]

By Melissa Towell
Reporter
A drink driver who was over twice the legal limit has been banned from driving for 15 months.
Martin Barr, 21, of Spallan Road was detected on Duke Street on April 17 last.
Officers noted the defendant’s eyes were glazed and his speech was slurred. He failed a preliminary breath test and taken to Strand [...]

By Melissa Towell
Reporter
A woman has been fined £2,000 for failing to comply with requirements of an enforcement notice issued by the Northern Planning Service.
The notice arose out of an unauthorised extension of a property on Roulston Avenue in 2006.
Gail Logue, of Millgrove Park, Eglinton had applied for the extension and was refused by the Planning [...]

By Ursula Duddy
Reporter
There was a touching farewell for a much-loved and familiar face in the school community of St Paul’s Primary School last week.
79 year old Pearl Walsh, the beloved ‘lollipop lady’ for the Slievemore School bowed out of school life amid cheers and tears.
Pearl began working at the school almost 15 years ago following [...]

By Alan Healy
Deputy Editor
The PSNI are hunting an armed gang who held up a Chinese takeaway in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The robbery happened shortly before 2am, when two males – one armed with a suspected firearm - entered the Peking Gardens Chinese takeaway.
One of the men threatened two members of staff in the [...]

By Ciaran O’Neill
coneill@derrynews.net
ANGRY traders have said it’s time to ‘cut the crap’ and address Derry’s city centre parking problems.
Around 50 local business people gathered at the Tower Hotel this week for a meeting to discuss ways to help independent traders in Derry survive and prosper in the city.
It emerged at Tuesday’s meeting that Derry City [...]