9am news briefing

Hanna Stanbridge won best actress for her performance in Outcast, a low-budget horror film set in Edinburgh.

The former Edinburgh drama student plays a schoolgirl in the film, which is about a housing estate terrorised by a murderous beast.

She stars alongside Cold Feet actor James Nesbitt.

• JAPANESE nuclear safety officials today said they suspect that the reactor core at one unit of the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant may have breached.

That raises the possibility of more severe radioactive contamination to the environment.

It comes as officials today said the death toll of the disaster had passed the 10,000 mark.

• A MAN was set to appear in court today after being charged with the murder of university lecturer Roger Gray.

The 20-year-old man was due to appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court after being charged by police yesterday.

Mr Gray, 64, a statistics lecturer at Heriot-Watt University, was found with multiple stab wounds at his home in Merchiston Crescent. A post mortem revealed that he had been subjected to a sustained attack.

• FIRST Minister Alex Salmond dubs the new Forth crossing "Scotland's Bridge of Recovery" in his televised response to the UK Budget tonight.

In the broadcast, recorded in South Queensferry, he says the new Forth Road Bridge meant 3000 jobs and a 1.5 billion investment in the country's future.

Mr Salmond goes on to say: "We know it is Scotland which is funding Chancellor George Osborne's budget – record revenues from Scotland's oil are bailing out the UK – yet again.

• NAPIER University has sold its historic Craighouse campus for conversion into flats.

The Craighouse Partnership, which acquired the 51-acre site for an undisclosed sum this week, also plans to build new properties on the land.

However, heritage groups said they would keep a close eye on future planning applications to ensure there wasn't too much development on the site.