PATIENTS who have survived cancer will be trained to help other sufferers fighting the disease under a groundbreaking new scheme.

NINE out of ten people want an independent inquiry into the “Big Six” energy companies, a survey has found.

THEY are windswept islands renowned for their treeless landscapes – but it hasn’t always been this way.

Now landowners on the Western Isles are to be offered new grants to help recover the archipelago with forests once again.

BEST-SELLING author Iain Banks is launching a campaign to stop Scotland’s libraries from cutting their opening hours. Banks, who is spearheading the protest alongside fellow sci-fi authors Ken MacLeod and Charles Stross, has described the moves to slash opening times by up to 20 per cent as a barbaric act.

ALMOST £300,000 has been awarded to 16 organisations to develop new support services for people with autism and their families in Scotland.

ALEX Salmond’s plans to remove Trident submarines from Scottish waters and pull out from NATO are to be raised in the US, in a fresh sign of the global ramifications of Scotland’s independence referendum.

]]> 1.2125813 Sun, 19 Feb 2012 00:42:25 +0000 http://www.scotsman.com/driver_scarred_in_roadside_attack_1_2125810

A DRIVER has been scarred for life after being attacked as he stopped to check the damage to his car following a minor road collision with another vehicle.

MINISTERS were urged yesterday to ensure eligibility tests for a new disability benefit are “accurate and fair” before they are rolled out.

A COMPANY selling the title of “Laird of Glencoe” for just £29.99 to buyers keen for their own piece of Scottish ancestry has been accused of “making a mockery” of the nation’s heritage and “exploiting” one of Scotland’s greatest natural treasures.

THEY have dwelt in Scotland’s waterways since the last Ice Age and were, according to Roman historians, the reason why Julius Caesar invaded Britain.

]]> 1.2125804 Sun, 19 Feb 2012 00:27:33 +0000 http://www.scotsman.com/national_grid_in_bid_to_force_sale_of_listed_gas_tank_to_city_council_1_2125798

INDUSTRIAL giant National Grid is considering legal action to force Edinburgh council to buy a state-protected gas holder that it wants to demolish to save around £5 million.

]]> 1.2125798 Sun, 19 Feb 2012 00:17:33 +0000 http://www.scotsman.com/plea_for_public_spending_watchdog_1_2125796

THE Scottish Government should have all its policies and promises stress-tested by an independent spending monitor to weed out any more waste from the cash-strapped public purse, one of the country’s leading finance experts will say this week.

A HEADTEACHER who was signed off work for nearly three years with stress is among dozens of education staff who have been on long-term leave from Scotland’s schools due to mental health problems.

]]> 1.2125794 Sun, 19 Feb 2012 00:13:33 +0000 http://www.scotsman.com/msps_to_press_eu_on_issue_of_local_firms_1_2125792

SCOTTISH ministers are to urge the European Commission to give local firms a better chance to compete on major public sector spending contracts.

THIS could be interpreted as taking an ethical stance too far, especially where students are concerned.

A student’s union, which traditionally are associated with sticky-floored discos and exuberant undergraduate excess, has voted to ban beer sold by a global brewing giant.

EVEN as the last throes of winter brought a biting chill over Ibrox, Billy Campbell could conceive of no other use for his scarf. A wiry figure wearing only jeans and a replica top, he held his arms aloft and outstretched, brandishing the red, white and blue of his team.

]]> 1.2125777 Sun, 19 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.scotsman.com/scottish_independence_alistair_darling_backs_tax_raising_powers_1_2125732

FORMER Labour chancellor Alistair Darling today backs a significant increase in the powers of the Scottish Parliament, saying it is time for MSPs to be given the responsibility for raising the money they are in charge of spending.

]]> 1.2125732 Sun, 19 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.scotsman.com/record_2_8m_fine_for_chemical_plant_emissions_shames_oil_giant_exxonmobil_1_2125776

ENERGY giant ExxonMobil has been forced to pay the biggest fine for an environmental offence in British history for failing to report greenhouse gas emissions from its chemicals plant in Scotland.

THE civic leaders of the town of Doncaster have suggested that their citizens should be given a vote in Alex Salmond’s independence referendum after historical research suggested that their town is a little part of England that still belongs to Scotland.

]]> 1.2125780 Sun, 19 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.scotsman.com/weather_warning_as_blizzards_strike_1_2125778

NORTHERN Scotland was expected to wake up to a covering of snow today after blizzards hit parts of the UK