THE minister of a picturesque Scottish church has hit out at the government for approving plans for a power line near a 1000-year-old site of worship. The new line will see cables upgraded and more than 600 new pylons erected along a 130 mile stretch from Beauly to Denny. But the Rev Stuart Fulton of [...]
METAL thieves could move their life-threatening activities to Scotland if England brings in new laws to clamp down on the practice, experts fear. The Energy Networks Association, an organisation of cable, pipe and wire providers, has warned that the Scottish Government needs to enact the same laws currently being introduced south of the border. The [...]
VICTIMS of forced marriage in Scotland will benefit from greater protection with new legislation being introduced today (Monday). Scottish courts now have the power to issue Forced Marriage Protection Orders, which offer increased protection for both men and women who are affected by forced marriage. The legislation is the first in the UK to make [...]
COUNCIL bosses have failed in their bid to force the family of a frail pensioner to sell her home. East Lothian council hoped to take a share of a property 94-year-old Mary Cunningham had gifted to her great grandson to recoup care home fees. Instead a senior judge ruled they could not force the sale. [...]
POTENTIAL servicemen are being barred from the armed forces by bosses concerned about their unsightly tattoos and body piercings. Hundreds of would-be recruits have been turned down because military chiefs are taking an increasingly dim view of the body art. In the last three years, the Navy has turned away 417 aspiring sailors because they [...]
EDINBURGH zoo will welcome its long-awaited pandas in less than a week, it has been revealed. Tian Tian and Yang Guang will arrive in the capital just days after the First Minister flies to China to strengthen ties between the Communist country and Scotland. The pair is expected to be a major draw for the [...]
A HOSPITAL cleaner tracked down a woman and pestered her on Facebook after stealing her details from a computer screen. An investigation is now under way into the serious breach of patient confidentiality, after the cleaner poached the patient’s records from an electronic display meant only for nurses. The worker noticed the woman while she [...]
A DISABLED widower has told how a vicious thug attacked him in his own garden and made off with his bracelet. George Comisky, who walks with a zimmer frame, had walked just a few hundred yards from the pub on Easter Road, Edinburgh where he had spent the evening when the yob struck. George, who [...]
AN elderly woman was conned out of hundreds of pounds by a bogus workman. The 93-year-old answered to door at around 12pm on Thursday to a man who offered to carry out repairs at her home. Though the woman was reluctant at first, he eventually persuaded her to have the work done. He then persuaded [...]
AN officer with one of Scotland’s largest police forces has been charged with drink driving after being chased through city streets by his colleagues. The off-duty police man was allegedly spotted driving erratically on November 13. He is alleged to have crashed into several vehicles during a chase throughEdinburghbefore finally abandoning his car. It is [...]
ONE of Scotland’s only women chief constables has ordered her force’s hard-boiled male officers to get in touch with their feminine side. Norma Graham, the head of Fife Police, is planning “emotional intelligence” seminars and an end to ill-fitting boiler suits for females. Chiefs have also provided specialist absence management training “to promote understanding of [...]
A FORMER rugby pro who once needed XXXXXL clothing has shed 16st, after being warned he wouldn’t live to walk his daughter down the aisle on her wedding day. Scott Paris, 34, has lost so much weight that there is enough material left over from his kilt to make one each for his two sons. [...]
GLOWING tributes were paid today at the funeral of a “beautiful baby boy” who died after being swept from a sea wall. Members of the lifeboat crew who pulled three-year-old Eryk Cieraszewski from the icy waters of the Forth joined his friends and family for the moving service. Eryk was swept to his death by a [...]
SCOTLAND’S oldest university has seen the funny side of a student prank about solo sex. A joker posted a bogus “official” notice at St Andrews University which banned students from indulging in self-gratification in the library. Another student then used the Freedom of Information Act (FoI) to establish whether the notice was genuine. The university [...]
A SCOTS soldier stationed in Kenya was rushed to hospital after being dragged from his sleeping bag by a Hyena. Private Steven Wishart had been in the African country for three weeks when the beast attacked him. Hear the full interview with Pte Wishart here.
POLICE are concerned for the wellbeing of a man who went missing from a city hospital. Andrew Cousins, 31, from Musselburgh was last seen around 6.30pm yesterday at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. When a family member came to visit him, she was told he had left the hospital and has failed to make contact with [...]
SCOTTISH Fisheries Secretary Richard Lochhead is to meet with the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association in Aberdeen today. The meeting takes place ahead of further mackerel negotiations next month between the EU, Norway, Iceland and Faroe Islands, with the aim of achieving a new international agreement for 2012. Mr Lochhead said: I have always been very [...]
GERALD Laing, the legendary artist of British and American ‘Pop’ art, has died aged 75. Laing was best known for his iconic images, which included as the remarkable 1962 portrait of French film star Brigitte Bardot and, more recently, his paintings of Amy Winehouse, who herself sadly died earlier this year. Laing studied art at [...]