VIDEOS featuring the abduction and torture of youths for sexual pleasure were found by police during a search of the home of a man accused of murdering Celtic youth star Lawrence Haggart, a court heard yesterday. Detective Constable Forrest Sloan, 39
THE critics' knives have been waspishly filleting Robert Lacey's book on Sotheby's, admiring its style while declaiming its content. Their worries centre on what is not there rather than what is: no mention of the British Rail Pension
Voting intentions IT says something about the febrile state of Scottish politics at present that this week's Herald/System Three poll has conjured up, elsewhere in the media, warnings of a business backlash (based on one interview with one senior
JOHN Macleod has fallen into a trap (May 5). America's Founding Fathers specified the fundamental human rights to ''life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'' in the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution. The Declaration
Motorsport Diary Dumfries may be short of accommodation, but it is an ideal base, in terms of high quality forest stages, for the RSAC Scottish Rally on June 5 and 6. From a starting control at the Whitesands, Friday's route will head for the forests
Sara Lee Classic Janice Moodie's spectacular arrival on the LPGA scene this year - yesterday she was featured in the Baltimore Sun - has been in stark contrast to the downturn in fortune suffered by Kathryn Marshall, who remains the only Scot to
ONE of the Queen's chaplains last night attacked what he said was a tendency to turn Diana, Princess of Wales into a ''romanticised'' and ''over-simplified'' icon. Canon Eric James made his comments, in the
I SHOULD declare a personal interest. Some 10 years ago, engaged in a bitter wrangle with a (French) boss, it came to my attention that he had denounced me as a soixante huitard. Ostensibly I was outraged. I had been nowhere near Paris in May 1968 .
It is not just the big ships that bring increased business. Today the Campbeltown to Ballycastle ferry service begins its first full summer season. The Scotland-Northern Ireland link was launched in July last year by Sea Containers Ferries, using the
AN accountant suspended from his professional body for misconduct last night defended his stance in a dispute said to threaten the future of a renowned Alexander Greek Thomson building. Dundee-based Tom Dyer insisted his aims for the Egyptian Halls in
AS a resident of Murmansk in north-west Russia for the past 15 months, I read with interest Ian Bruce's commendable article on the implications of Nato expansion (May 7). It might, as Bruce says, have seemed a good idea at the time. On the other
THE Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee left base rates on hold at 7.25% at its monthly meeting yesterday. Most of the economic data over the past month have posed little inflationary pressure and shown manufacturing industry on the rack
A SPORTS complex costing #4m is to be built on Glasgow's South Side following one of the largest ever awards from the National Lottery Sports Fund, it was announced yesterday. The #1.9m grant for Holyrood Secondary School is being matched by money
SOME of Scotland's new local authorities fell seriously short of food safety inspection targets in the year 1996/97, according to a report published today by the Accounts Commission for Scotland. The report on local authorities' environmental
NATIONAL Farmers' Union of Scotland vice-president Peter Chapman has told European Union officials in Brussels they will have to re-think proposed reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy. Chapman and union president George Lyon were at meetings
AT home, in his native Detroit, Patrick Scott's DJ'ing usually has a definite old school cast to it. ''For the past eight years I've mostly been a mobile DJ,'' he says over the transatlantic phone. ''I&apos
People used to march for jobs, most famously and emotively from Jarrow to London. Yesterday a global march against jobs, which began in the Philippines and will end in Geneva, reached Glasgow to publicise the campaign to end child labour. It, too, is
criticised on finance (April 30). Your statement that ''only three of Scotland's 43 further education colleges have a strategy to improve their financial health'' is inaccurate and potentially misleading. In fact, the National
AN American mother will next week begin her battle for the introduction of legislation outlawing sexually explicit messages which target children on the Internet. Deborah Boehle's crusade began last summer when she suddenly found her home besieged
T IT'S only the locals who are lost. Only the locals who would rather be somewhere else. Only the locals who wish they liked the place better. For Suspect Culture's first community project, director Graham Eatough has asked a group of seven
May 8, 1984 n THE Herald reported: ''Violence erupted at the Ravenscraig steel complex yesterday as police and pickets became involved in the most serious clashes yet in the dispute over coal supplies. About 1000 pickets from all over Scotland
Ayrshire and Arran health board has become the first in the UK to reduce heart surgery waiting times to six months, writes David Steele. In 1997 it met targets for treating heart patients in need of cardiac surgery within six months of their problem
THE newest installation at Glasgow's controversial Gallery of Modern Art was unveiled yesterday, writes Keith Bruce. Peter Howson won the public vote for the Britannia Lord Provost's prize, one of the richest in the country. His work was entitled
THE Prime Minister has pledged millions of pounds to help the victims of terrorist violence in Northern Ireland after hearing tragic first-hand accounts in Belfast on Wednesday, writes Catherine MacLeod, Chief Political Correspondent. Ms Mary McNeice
THE campaigns coordinator for Anti-Slavery International peered out at George Square through a blur of diagonal rain. ''At least we've got a typical Glasgow day,'' he observed cheerfully. Out in the square, 10 children who have
AN unprecedented bid to recruit students is under way at Dundee University, which has suffered the biggest drop in applications to higher education institutions in Scotland. The aggressive marketing strategy was launched amid fears that the Government
CLYDESDALE Bank was again one of the better-performing parts of its competition-hit National Australia Bank parent during the six months to end-March. The Glasgow-based bank raised interim pre-tax profits by 15.3% to #72.5m, on the back of a 14% jump
Kelso coach Bruce Rutherford has admitted that, if he had to choose between winning the Tennent's Velvet Cup and the play-off against Heriot's FP, he would opt for the latter. Speaking at Murrayfield yesterday at the launch of the specially
WITHIN 24 hours of arrogantly naming his team to meet Scotland in the World Cup opening game on June 10, Brazilian coach Mario Zagallo was given a scare when one of his top strikers, Romario, received an injury that could have put him out for the entire
David Steele TWO MPs yesterday spent over an hour visiting jailed Scots Guards Jim Fisher and Mark Wright who are serving life sentences for the murder of a Belfast teenager, writes David Steele. Mr George Foulkes, MP for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley
IN the wake of the largest industrial merger, confirmed yesterday by Germany's Daimler-Benz and Chrysler of the US, and the continuing tussle over Rolls-Royce, the motor industry world-wide is ripe for further rationalisation. Although the industry
I ENJOYED your report (May 2) of Education Minister Brian Wilson's latest broadside at the older universities: all the right stuff was there - aspirations of working-class students, elitism, need for a more plural society, etc, etc. He was on safe
CHECKLIST THEY may not trip round the maypole any more but for kids the ''merry month'' heralds long sunny days of boisterous activity - and an increased risk of injury. While children are incredibly resilient, some inevitably suffer
Redemption THIS is an everyday tale of murdering folk, violence, vengeance, venomous hatred, books, redemption, and hypocrisy: and I saw some of it from the inside. Not the story of Mary Bell, but of a famous Scot, one James Boyle. It all happened in
n To many twentysomethings, the first experience of Vincent Price's blood-curdlingly unctuous tones was probably the poem he narrated as part of Michael Jackson's 1982 megahit Thriller. The fact that in his seventies, Price was working on pop
A DISUSED fabrication shed in Renfrewshire that once turned out nuclear reactors is to be swiftly converted to an electronics manufacturing plant employing 300 people by the end of the year. Projected figures should take the employment total to 560 within
In Edinburgh last night there was a celebration of Britain's presidency of the European Union. In Brussels yesterday Mr Wim Duisenberg, the prospective head of the European Central Bank, gave reasons why the celebrations should be muted. Mr Tony
A housekeeper claims she was sexually discriminated against and unfairly sacked by a Roman Catholic priest. Ms Maria McBride, 29, has taken Father David Brown, former priest at St Thomas's Church in Riddrie, Glasgow, to an industrial tribunal
One lucky Scottish child could win global coverage. Anne Johnstone has the details ARE you aged between six and 12? Do you want to be in a Dorling Kindersley book? Write and tell The Herald why and you never know - it could be you! Three years ago children
The title could hardly be more symbolic - sitting in Limbo, waiting for something to happen, caught in no man's land. Both Dawn Penso and Judy Hepburn's characters and the fortunes of Carib Theatre's director Anton Phillips could as neatly
DESPITE continued grumbling about the London Stock Exchange's electronic trading system, chief executive Gavin Casey remains adamant that order-driven trading is integral to the exchange's on-going success in ''euroland.'&apos
EDINBURGH had a lot to offer the European Union in terms of best practice, conference facilities and a European tradition, guests were told last night at a special exhibition of projects in the city which had received EU funding, writes Frances Horsburgh
WHEN David Sillars recently entered the cramped and musky den which is Primal Scream's London back-street recording studio, he did so in fear and trepidation. For the dapper host of Be Bop To Hip Hop, Radio Scotland's weekly jazz show, was
HIBERNIAN manager Alex McLeish and the club's new chairman, Tom O'Malley, talked yesterday of their desire for the team to battle back from the first division. O'Malley said he would be meeting the club's owner, Sir Tom Farmer, very
THE Bangladeshi Government expects to announce the long-awaited results of its major oil and gas licensing round within days, a senior government official said in Edinburgh yesterday. Farooq Sobhan, former foreign secretary and now chairman of the board
AN MP is to ask the Lord Advocate, Lord Hardie, to review a Highland sheriff's conduct of a case involving a Skye bridge campaigner, writes David Ross, Highland Correspondent. This follows the report in The Herald yesterday that Sheriff James Fraser
JIM Goldie has his string in fine form and he struck again in the mile handicap at Hamilton yesterday with Stormless. The seven-year-old coasted home under John Bramhill to beat Zorba by six lengths. The Uplawmoor trainer said: ''They went
WEARING cycling shorts, tee-shirt, and a bandana to hide her hair and preserve her modesty, in deference to Muslim sensitiv- ities, Mikaela Ingberg launched women's sport into what passes for the the modern era in Qatar last night. The Finn was
THE new governor of Edinburgh Castle was installed at a ceremony on the esplanade yesterday. He is Major-General Mark Strudwick CBE, the General Officer Commanding of the Army in Scotland.
This Nasa illustration, released yesterday, shows a burst of gamma rays from deep in space that scientists believe may have been the biggest explosion since the big bang. The burst, first seen on on December 14 last year, was measured at about 12 billion
THE Dutch banker chosen to head the powerful new Euro-bank asserted his independence yesterday by pouring scorn on the political deal engineered by Tony Blair to secure his appointment. Wim Duisenberg startled the European Parliament with his frank assessment
IT'S done and dusted. The latest vacuum cleaners have been put to the test in households across of the country, and any dirt about them is no longer being swept under the carpet. Consumer specialist Which? has just published the results of its
A veterinary nurse, forced to have a Caesarean section against her will, yesterday won the right to sue the hospital which carried out the operation following a landmark court decision. The Court of Appeal ruled the hospital, a health care trust in south
Jennifer Cunningham considers the obstacles to tackling childhood violence We've all been contemplating childhood violence in the last fortnight, but few dare examine for long the disturbing questions it raises about innocence and guilt and responsibility
DOES the world need a play about Arthur Sullivan? I don't think so. His story, certainly as told by Christopher Webber, follows a celebrated but unremarkable path. His career in conjunc- tion with WS Gilbert went from success to success, with
Butcher's wife Elaine Barr faced searching questions yesterday about the delay in providing a full list of outlets from the shop at the centre of the world's worst E-coli food poisoning case. Several times, at a fatal accident inquiry into
A HIGHLY controversial plan by the leadership of the Highland Council to close up to 10 primaries was wrecked yesterday by councillors determined to keep the small rural school a feature of the modern Highlands, writes David Ross, Highland Correspondent
Turespana Masters/Balearic Open British golfer Andrew McKenna, whose first taste of European Tour life was ''a complete nightmare,'' found his second bite much more pleasurable in Majorca yesterday. The 24-year-old Scot, based in
THE hills are alive with the sound of gnashing teeth. It's a scandal, they say. An outrage. But I just chuckled to myself. We all know about the great Munro scam - the eight new Munros added to the list and the one knocked off by the Scottish Mountaineering
A #600,000 road-building project to cut traffic congestion at the southern end of the Forth Road Bridge will begin next week. An extra lane is being added to the A8000 in a bid to ease early morning jams caused by motorists heading to Edinburgh from
PLANS are under way for a millennium exhibition in Edinburgh gathering some of the world's greatest art treasures to depict the life of Christ. The proposal, which could see works loaned by the Vatican and the Hermitage collections, is sure to be
A FORMER police inspector and his wife were seriously injured yesterday after a powerful parcel bomb exploded as they opened it in their Dundee home. The couple, Mr Mike Coyne and his wife Margaret, both aged 63, were taken to Dundee Royal Infirmary
Jennifer Cunningham Jennifer Cunningham reports on a school of thought which offers business people the chance to brainstorm and progress through communication A learning cafe is learning with fun, says Isabel Willshaw, summing up her baby before confessing
A PUPIL of the Royal Blind School yesterday won the Edinburgh Fringe Poster competition. Andy Manzie, 16, was one of 3915 entrants from 151 schools. He was presented with his #250 prize at a ceremony in the Signet Library. The Royal Blind School in Edinburgh
GLASGOW Business Park has achieved its first major occupier. MFI, the home furnishings giant, is to establish a 65,000 square foot delivery centre for Glasgow and the West of Scotland at the site, creating 60 jobs. MFI has cut urban outlets in favour
It isn't very often that there's a transport event of a type nobody has thought of before. But the National Museums of Scotland has come up with the notion of organising, on June 13 and 14, a Scottish Built Rally open to any kind of vehicle
John McCalman, Municipal Correspondent GLASGOW'S former Labour leader, Councillor Robert Gould, has been advised he should not attend any more meetings of the city's Labour Group executive despite the lifting of his suspension by the Labour
David Finlay says the Avant's flexibility means safer driving I suppose the day is coming when there will no longer be any car in production with the word ''estate'' in its name. Load-carrying versions of saloons have, over
An absolutely new era YOUR analysis in your leading article (May 6) of what is happening in political voting intentions is pretty good in the eyes of this nationalist. You are right, I am sure, in saying that ''the establishment of a Scottish
PAINTINGS hidden under a carpet for years by the eminent Scots artist Sir William Gillies will be viewed for the first time since the 1930s in a major exhibition of his work, marking the centenary of his birth, writes Lynne Robertson. The canvases initially
BellSouth Classic A slimmer Mark Calcavecchia made an ideal start on his way to a one-stroke lead after his opening round at the $US1.8 million BellSouth Classic in Atlanta, Georgia, yesterday. Calcavecchia holed out with an eight-iron from 159 yards
THE strong pound and the Asian economic crisis joined forces to claim another victim yesterday as Clyde Blowers issued a profits warning that wiped a quarter off its share price. Executive chairman Jim McColl said the double whammy stripped #500,000
WALTER Smith last night angrily denied yesterday's reports that he had signed a new two-year deal at Ibrox that would see him take charge of the Rangers' reserve and youth sides. The man, who will tomorrow, at Tannadice, attempt to steer Rangers
THE Government was last night defeated in the Lords when peers voted, by a majority of 31, to hold Chancellor Gordon Brown to his Budget pledge to increase the lower threshold for National Insurance next year. A Tory amendment to the Social Security
HAMILTON have opened talks with Partick Thistle with a view to making Firhill their base next season. Homeless Accies have been tenants at Albion Rovers' Cliftonhill ground recently, but problems with the Coatbridge venue have strained relations
I HAVE the greatest respect for Bob Holman and the work he continues to do in championing the cause of children and families in poverty. I also have the greatest of respect for those who tried their best to improve child-care practice and their attempts
Optional extras nWhile supplies of Mitsubishi's ''people carriers'' normally fall well behind demand, the importers have, unusually, put a limited edition of the larger model on the market. The Space Wagon Ovation, left, has
EXCLUSIVE THE SNP will seek to strike back today over allegations that its surge in the polls is unsettling the business community by unveiling the latest recruit to its ranks. Meanwhile, beleaguered Scots Secretary Donald Dewar last night bowed to
INTIMACY by Hanif Kureishi Faber & Faber, #9.99 BLAKE Morrison has a lot to answer for, and little of it is as compelling as Kureishi's new novel. Morrison is now regularly acknowledged as the begetter of the current wave of confessional writing
HEARTS' veteran defender, Dave McPherson, talked yesterday of how the experience gained by the club's young players in their last cup final appearance against Rangers two years ago would be vital for their upcoming encounter with the Ibrox
THE designated president of the new European Central Bank laid his cards on the table yesterday by indicating that he would be aiming to keep inflation in the new euro-zone below 2%. Wim Duisenberg, who is due to take over his new role on July 1, confirmed
IF CELTIC do as well in their final push for the premier division title as they have done in the poll to select the writers' Player of The Year, they will fly off to Portugal on Sunday as champions for the first time since 1988. Coincidentally,
It is feared a disease dreaded in the salmon farming industry has struck in Scotland. An outbreak of infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) is suspected on two salmon farms in Loch Nevis and Loch Snizort in the West Highlands. If the disease is confirmed thousands
THERE were some miserable banking sector bears who had bet the wrong way and who were forced yesterday to give grudging praise to the Royal Bank of Scotland. Their discomfiture was amplified by the 5.8 % rise in the share price when the sector was in
THE Royal Bank of Scotland has revealed a hidden jewel in the form of a 24% indirect holding in the Superdiplo supermarket group in Spain. That is being partially floated next week and the bank expects to be able to record a profit of #1000m in its full-year
Ross Finlay finds the Primera has a place for everything The old boundaries between ''British'' and ''foreign'' cars have long since been breached. Diehards may regret that, but the linking together of management
AH, the memories that flooded back last night: faded memories through 30 years, recalling a time of psychedelic haze, the swoosh of a kaftan, a time when long hair was long hair (and there was more of it), when you could get five pints for a pound .
SCOTLAND suffered a disappointing 6-2 defeat against England in their opening match of the Israeli International Youth Tournament in Ra'anana yesterday, losing out in the last bowl. Scotland had put the first points on the board when Billy Mellors
SHELL Transport shares climbed 4p to 454p yesterday on relief that there were no unpleasant surprises in its first-quarter figures. Net income fell by 23% to $1945m (#1171m) as a result of lower oil prices but this was better than analysts had predicted
THE Scottish Office announced yesterday that five architectural teams have been shortlisted as possible designers for the new Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood in Edinburgh. Two of the design teams include Scottish practices, and Scottish-born
A man who sexually abused his best friend's young son escaped a jail sentence yesterday. Instead paedophile James Murphy was placed on probation for three years because he was only charged on a summary complaint. Murphy, 59, of Selkirk Road, Port
ENGLISH apathy last night produced one of the lowest recorded votes in local government elections, with a drop in Labour support, significant losses for the Liberal Democrats, and the first, hesitant signs of a recovery for the Conservatives. A turn-out
GERMAN luxury car maker Daimler-Benz and the Chrysler Corporation of the US yesterday confirmed the biggest industrial merger in history to create the world's fifth-largest car producer. The deal, clinched at a summit meeting of executives from
Francis Shennan finds out what's on offer for tourists on both land and sea Employment in the world's biggest industry is the most difficult to measure because its working practices are so varied. Its workforce is often seasonal, part-time
WHO is this man? Where's he been all my life? Am I stupid for never having heard of him? I've stumbled out of a show on to a New York street, and I don't know whether I'm in Glasgow or the Big Apple. Just finished is an afternoon
A HARMLESS looking wooden walking stick produced in court yesterday had been hollowed out and a gun barrel and concealed trigger installed. The 100-year-old stick-gun was found by police in the home of a wealthy pensioner after an anonymous tip-off,
THE chief constable of Fife has warned of the risk to children from paedophiles using Internet chatlines to access their prey, writes Lynne Robertson. Fife's most senior police officer John Hamilton believes youngsters should be banned from using
WIM Duisenberg, the European Union's nominee to be the first president of the European Central Bank (ECB), is as far from being a stereotypical banker as is possible, writes Rory Watson. Built like a second row forward, burly and craggy faced with
n Abbot Group has announced the acquisition for #2.78m of the in-house, non-destructive testing and technical welding department of ICI Chemicals and Polymers on Teesside. Abbot's wholly-owned subsidiary OIS Teesside has made the acquisition, which
FRIENDS Ivory & Sime UK Smaller Companies Trust crept ahead of its benchmark in its second half but not by enough to avoid a below-par result for the full year to March 31. UK Smaller, which had shareholders' funds of #46m and borrowings of #6m
THE predictable bitterness and infighting over nominations for the tiny number of winnable Tory seats for the Scottish Parliament next May has already erupted, with the exclusion from the final short list in Edinburgh Pentlands of two of the city&apos
Some people like gay men, some people don't, although, in my varied and spectacular experience, there are gals who so tremble at the thought of being seduced by straight aces, they make Doris Day look like a hooker. There exists in the weird demented
A MAJOR leisure development near the former royal yacht Britannia's new home in Leith could be sunk because of fears of fire from a chemical store, writes Raymond Duncan. Planning officers are set to recommend a #1.5m plan to transform the area&
The chairman of the AA and his three sons are all members of the RAC's exclusive Pall Mall club and are set to land windfalls of #35,000 each, it emerged last night. The revelation comes as the war between the two rival motoring organisations stepped
JOHN McLellan (May 7) says that no ''responsible teacher of English'' (and God forgive them) could recommend Jimmy Reid's prose to their pupils. I recently heard Mr Reid deliver the most brilliant and lucid talk of the year
Resentful Northern Italians liken their country to a milch cow. They are the mouth, which does all the work chewing the cud. The pendulous udders hang over Rome, which gets all the cream. The south is the rear end and upon it is deposited the end product
Gerard Seenan analyses the case of Miss S, given medical treatment against her will THE case of Miss S was another Solomon judgment. The veterinary assistant, known only by her anonymous initial, yesterday became the latest subject in a series of high-profile
