SHE has covered breaking news which dominated headlines across the globe, from attempted coups to terrorist attacks and natural disasters.

But now the new face of current affairs for STV says that she couldn't be happier to be back in Scotland - as the biggest stories are happening right here.

Halla Mohieddeen, from the Borders, made her debut on the airwaves last week as the inaugural anchor of STV News Tonight on the the broadcaster's new channel.

After a week of presenting duties, she's convinced she's made the right decision to return to her native land and embrace the "perfect storm" of the independence debate, Brexit and the myriad of constitutional questions setting the news agenda.

She said: “It is a massive privilege to front the new show – when I was approached by STV and they explained the show I thought the concept was fantastic. It is a dream job for me.

“It will all be done from Scotland, so it is the ideal job. I’m delighted to be coming home.”

“The UK is where it’s all happening right now and Scotland is at the centre of that. Scotland has become a very [politically] engaged country, and we are in the middle of these constitutional questions which keep coming up.

“There is no place in the world I would rather be than here.”

A graduate of Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, she started off live on the air as a weathergirl in China, delivering meteorological reports to an audience of 85 million people.

Switching to a news beat, Ms Mohieddeen spent a decade on the international desk, first in Asia and then for in Paris France 24 as their Morning News and Middle East Matters presenter.

She was in the hotseat when the station covered the Charlie Hebdo attacks, the MH17 plane crash in Ukraine, and lost a colleague in the French Bataclan Theatre Massacre.

The presenter, who is originally from the Borders, said: "The attempted coup in Turkey happened on my watch. And Fidel Castro also died while I was presenting. I was left ad-libbing for ten minutes before we caught up to that piece of breaking news.

"What they used to say of me was that I was a safe pair of hands. They liked to have me interview difficult people because they knew I would not let them off the hook.”

Working in international newsrooms has given her a knack for languages, an invaluable skill when you are working with people from around the world.

But despite her globe-spanning career, she's kept her Scottish accent intact.

She said: "I studied French and German at university but it’s very different what you learn on the streets, none of it was used.

"I can do 'taxi Chinese' - what I like to call day-to-day Chinese. But I was there for six and a half years and so I knew enough to get by in our editorial meetings.

“I’m sure working at home will be marginally easier. My husband says I get more Scottish when I have a bit to drink."

*STV News Tonight airs live from Glasgow at 7pm on STV2.