colletta smith, bbc news, in newry. footfall in uk high streets and shopping centres was around 10 per cent higher at midday today compared with yesterday — and the same is true when compared to last year, as shops this year are estimated to be around seven per cent busier compared with christmas eve of last year. it's been a tough year for retailers with a number of notable high street names closing — including poundworld and maplin. chris evans has bid an emotional farewell to listeners to his final radio 2 breakfast show this morning. he said it was a "sad day" as he left after nine years at the helm. evans is off to virgin radio but will be back on the bbc in the next series of strictly come dancing. 0ur arts editor will gompertz listened in to his last show. there's flash photography in his report. singing. ta—ra! and with that, chris evans signed off for the last time as host of britain's most popular radio show. he took it over in 2010 from a broadcaster who was inspiration to him — the late sir terry wogan. he s

colletta smith, bbc news, in newry.he east of england will celebrate christmas in one of the most dangerous cities in the world. service men and women from the royal anglians and the colchester based parachute regiment are in afghanistan, half way through a six month tour of duty in the capital, kabul. alex dunlop reports. four years after frontline british troops pulled out of afghanistan, soldiers from the east are still here and in harms way. 280 of them, royal anglians. their role, to be bodyguards for diplomats and advisers in and around kabul. afghanistan, and our time here... on an intermittent line from their base, the battalion‘s commander told me it is a vitaljob. those advisers need to be taken to work and brought home again every day. that is the role of our soldiers, they have been trained specifically to look after the livelihood and to enable advisers to do their work on a day—to—day basis so we can build those strong institutions for the afghan government. this battalion has a profound link with this war

colletta smith, bbc news, in newry. the carol was first performed in austria, in the village of 0berndorf near salzburg on christmas eve 1818, after a priestjoseph mohr, asked a school teacher and organist, franz gruber to set his words to music. bethany bell reports from salzburg. # singing. it is one of the world's favourite christmas carols, silent night. adding it is the best christmas song ever. it is the movie, we learnt as a child and every one thing that. b carroll is 200 years old this christmas and it comes from austria. this is where silent night was first song on the village of christmas eve. the original church does not exist any more, it was badly damaged by floods at the end of the 19th century and had to be demolished. there's little chapel was built in its place. a priest wrote the words, he asked a schoolteacher and a organist to compose the melody. according to legend, the church organ had broken down, damaged by the mice chewing at the bellows so they had to sing it with this guitarist mac historians

dortmund were giving out presents before kickoff of elated efficient farewell to newry shocking who joined braman this summer. and there was no shortage of action from the get go dortmund's first big chance came in the sixth minute but davy clawson managed to steer pop go out catheters shots wide if the goal. shortly afterwards out tougher fed might go to this time plus and pushed dortmund's captain down in the box but the referee mistakenly awarded no penalty. in the twentieth minute rafael got a free kick landed on all caught his head and then in the net but an offside whistle interrupted the celebrations then the video assistant took another look and the goal stood one nil for dortmund. the pace stayed fast nicholas moyes on whether mr repton pass and dortmund pounced royce making it two nil just seven minutes later by jade and sam show notched up his league best tenth assist of the season the exuberant mood of almost eighty thousand fans soon got dampened by match creusa braman kept him making it to one and ending his dry spell after nine games without a goal. dortmund created their ne

emma, many thanks again, emma vardy per us at newry with the latest.about brexit had intensified, which, added to slower global growth, was affecting the economy. it estimates that the economy is set to grow by 0.2% in the final quarter of the year, down from last month's forecast of 0.3%. 0ur economics correspondent andy verity has more details. anxiety over brexit appears to be diluting the festive cheer this year, be it for the bank of england, retailers or shoppers in st albans. i think everyone's a bit worried with brexit and the uncertainty that's going on there, and it makes you think twice about what you spend this year. only spend what i really have to spend on at the moment, and only do what i can really afford to do. 0nline retailers, on the whole, are beating the uncertainty better than most and are now taking more than one in every £5 spent. but even this online gift specialist, which supplies 4.5 million christmas presents, is working hard. we saw a real spike around black friday, cyber monday, we invested behind that, customers really re

border towns like newry have felt the boost.ly broadcast but as i say, we benefit greatly from the southern trade, shoppers coming from as far off as dublin. it's something we've always benefited from. 66.28, please. down the road, the tills are ringing, in two currencies. a euro, 33.67, please. the fall in the value of the pound has been a huge boost to seamus' business. 75% of his customers cross the border. northern ireland's retail sales are driven by southern irish people, there's no doubt about it. we're one of the people that is quite happy there's been a vote to leave the european union. so much fluctuation with the currency, it's been very advantageous for us. each of these would have cost you 1 euro, 23, a couple of christmases ago. now that'sjust1 euro, ten. if you multiply that across a big family shop, spending hundreds of pounds, the savings add up. the washing powder, for me, is cheaper, right, you know. there's great bargains in that shop. and in the off—licence as well. while retailers across the uk have had a t

newri this morninge george's county police have released additional information in ake deadly w stabbing. police arrested robert jackson. he's accused of stabbing him to death saturday morning. they were roommates at a group home. jackson was arresd at the scene. police are investigating the motive. >> family and friends of a d.c. teen shot and killed in southeast are remembering him as a good personho always was willing to help another. the family of geralda watson hed candlelight vigil last night. they woreee shirts bearing his face. they don't know why two people wearing a mask would chase him hoot him airwell and several times. >> whoever is responsible for i this, forgive you. >> police urge anyone in the community with information about this case to come forward. >> two police ficers were hit and killed by a train. thisle happened whi the officers were chasing a shooting suspect. both officers leave behind young children. >> two young men. both fathers. this holidayill never be the same. >> both officers have been on the force for just over two years. >> two prince george's county

. >>> right now at 11:00, newry released photos of a man considered armed and dangerous. an intense manhunt is under way. >> he's accused of shooting and killing a police officer. tonight almost 48 hours later, he's still on the run. the suspect is in the country illegally. our reporter is in the up to of new mapp south of modesto. more developments today. >> reporter: quite a few developments. those photos are the latest efforts by a police agency to try to track down that gunman. they swooped in on a farmhouse in the county of merced to find the man but he was not located. tonight, investigators released these photos confirming this is the suspected gunman but would not confirm his name. in a small community south of merced, police officers cordoned off a farmhouse but he was not found. >> please bear with me. >> reporter: the police chief pleaded for the public's help in their search. >> please help us find this man and bring himjustice. i hope he's watching today and he does the right thing and turns himself in. >> reporter: his grief seems to be shared by plenty of t

they took to the slopes of newry, in the us state of maine. can see, most of the father and mother christmases proved to be quite handy on the snow, even without a reindeer or sleigh around to help. hello. more rain for part of england and wales in the day had. tuesday, quieterfor and wales in the day had. tuesday, quieter for all and wales in the day had. tuesday, quieterfor all but then and wales in the day had. tuesday, quieter for all but then the weather gets pretty busy again from wednesday, as we will see. a chilly start the further north you are as monday begins and in scotland, the risk of ice on untreated services because we have the weather overnight clearing away, allowing temperatures to get away. as we go on to the day, this is the area of cloud. showers and outbreaks of rain moving to england and wales, producing heavy burst, small window, south wales and south—west england. northernmost counties of northern england and northern ireland and scotla nd england and northern ireland and scotland will stay dry and sunny. on the north