GEORGE Osborne has signalled that he is prepared to break up the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in a bid to recoup the £45 billion of taxpayers’ money used to bail the once all-conquering Scottish institution out in 2008.

HUNDREDS of chicken fans caused traffic chaos as they tried to cross the road to get to a new KFC outlet in Elgin.

First Minister Alex Salmond today said Hearts will survive its current financial woes and emerge “at the other end of the tunnel.”

reported rapes soared by 16 per cent to 1,372 attacks last year, to the highest level seen in Scotland since such records began.

FREE contraception for pupils as young as 13 should be looked at as part of a drive to cut Scotland’s chronic teenage pregnancy rates, MSPs have said.

SCOTTISH Secretary Michael Moore last night warned that independence would disrupt the country’s financial services.

A NEW law is to be introduced which will allow reckless bank bosses to be jailed and bonuses to be clawed back, Prime Minister David Cameron has confirmed.

JOHN Swinney yesterday sought to defuse anxiety over the impact independence will have on pensions by insisting a so-called “triple lock” guarantee would remain intact if people vote Yes next year.

THE man at the wheel of ­Edinburgh’s main bus operator saw his pay increase by 26 per cent to £265,000 last year, The Scotsman can reveal.

Ukip leader Nigel Farage has said there is “something unpleasant going on” in Scotland after a chaotic day’s campaigning, with a senior party figure claiming there is a “problem with democracy” north of the border.

WITH a colossal copy of a Dandy annual, a vast Rubik’s Cube, and a scattering of playing cards, pencils that dwarf all around them, it could easily pass for the playroom of a giant’s children.

SURVIVORS of the Piper Alpha Tragedy relive the full horror of the disaster in a searing new documentary set to get a high-profile world premiere this week at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

TWO artists have beaten off competition from over 100 applicants for residency posts on the remotest outpost in the UK.

CRIME has fallen to a 39-year low, with homicide, violence and possession of an offensive weapon all down sharply in Scotland.

SAFETY risks on offshore oil rigs are better managed than they were 25 years, but the industry must guard against complacency, a conference in Aberdeen marking the anniversary of Piper Alpha heard.

EXPOSURE to traffic fumes and industrial air pollution can dramatically increase a mother’s chances of having a child with autism, research has shown.

A CATALAN nationalist MEP has challenged claims by a European Parliament vice-president that Spain could veto an independent Scotland’s membership of the European Union.

Drinking in moderation through pregnancy does not harm a baby’s neurodevelopment, according to research.

FAMILIES should have a statutory right to child care from birth up to the age of 15, according to a committee of MSPs.

THE discovery of the first deep-sea shark spawning ground in Scotland has fuelled calls for better protection of the seas and the nation’s multi-million pound wildlife tourism sector.