The Herald

Soldier Admits Murder of Injured Iraqi; Sergeant Says He Put Boy of 16 'Out of His Misery'

AN American soldier pleaded guilty yesterday to the murder of a severely wounded Iraqi teenager found in a burning truck. Johnny Horne, a staff sergeant from North Carolina, admitted killing the 16-year-old boy during fierce fighting in Baghdad's impoverished Sadr City neighbourhood.

Is Danny the Real Champion of the World?; Why Williams Thinks He Is Boxing's Best Heavyweight

IT IS indicative of Danny Williams' characteristic complexities that in the early hours of tomorrow morning, in the gambling mecca of Las Vegas, he will take centre stage for the easiest fight of a hitherto underwhelming career. The soft-spoken pugilist has slain his conscience and now has the awesome WBC heavyweight champion, Vitaliy Klits-chko, in his sights. Not for Williams the pomp and ceremony of enthronement: the 31-year- old's modesty and Muslim faith prevent him from even contemplati...

Media Anger at General's Salvo

General Sir Michael Walker, the Army's chief of staff, was condemned yesterday for accusing the press and TV of putting Black Watch troops at risk with their reports. His comments on Thursday, that media reports on the redeployment of the troops made it easier for militants to target them, provoked outrage from journalists' representatives who said he had "no right" to criticise reporters working in conditions of extreme danger.

Not Sharp Enough to Cut It; Vanity Fair Is Lush, but Reese Witherspoon Just Can't Get to Grips with Its Smart English Heroine

I don't usually like to extend too much sympathy to actors - they are weedy, spoiled creatures on the whole, and it improves their characters if they're sometimes treated harshly, like puppies or Victorian orphans. But watching the new big-screen adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair, directed by Mira Nair, one can't help but feel a pang for the English actress Natasha Little. Little played Thackeray's unforgettable anti-heroine Becky Sharp to great acclaim in the BBC's 1998...

Handwriting . . . Is It Worth the Paper It's Written On Nowadays?; As Mobile Phones and E-Mail Become the Dominant Way of Communicating Our Written Words, Jennifer Cunningham Asks If There Is Any Place for Good Handwriting in a Technological Society

Learning to write legibly is hard work for most five and six- year-olds. Some children don't even get the hang of it by the end of primary school. But when almost every teenager in the land is nimbly thumbing text messages to friends while simultaneously holding a conversation with someone else, do they really need to learn to write things neatly down on paper any more? General expressions of disappointment greeted the publication this week of the 5-14 school attainment levels. In English wri...

Umpteen Identity Documents Fail to Impress Bank

THE problem with personal identity cards is that banks and building societies would completely ignore their existence as official "security" documents. Let me explain. On Thursday, December 9, at approximately 18:00 hrs, an automated teller machine (ATM) at the main branch of the Clydesdale Bank in Union Street, Aberdeen, swallowed my card! The card was only a couple of months old and had served me diligently for that time - although at my expense.

Who Pays the Bill As Good Money Goes After Bad On Nhs Merry-Go- Round?

On June 28, 2002, Malcolm Chisholm, the then Scottish health minister, hailed it as "a superb acquisition". At midnight on that day the ailing HCI private hospital in Clydebank became the property of the people of Scotland for (pounds) 37.5m. Mr Chisholm was cock- a-hoop about his coup, which he described as "a great deal for Scotland". Less than 30 months later, his successor is about to announce that a large part of the facility, now known as the Golden Jubilee Hospital, is being leased bac...

Holyrood Fails to Face Up to the Gambling Proposal

TO turn on the state radio in Zimbabwe, years ago, was to receive a daily update on the thoughts and doings of Comrade Robert Mugabe, and frequently also of his wife. The BBC has copied this slavishly, so first thing each day, Great Britain hears of the up-to-date views, travels, policy changes of Prime Minister Tony Blair - never the cabinet (or even of the parliament). This prolonged effect has percolated through to MSPs who, in Pavlovian mode, use Sewel motions on every possible occasion, ...

How to Outfox a Badly Drawn Law

A man on horseback uses a pack of hounds to flush out a fox for the purpose of killing it. The man on the street might call this hunting with hounds but he should know better. What Trevor Adams was engaged in on October 6, 2002 near Kelso may have looked like fox- hunting but was in fact pest control, he said. Sheriff Kevin Drummond agreed with him and in a landmark judgment in Jedburgh yesterday, found Mr Adams not guilty of deliberately hunting a fox with 20 hounds. It always seemed likely ...

Economic Miracle?

The Short and the Long of Ferry Services

IF ferry services are the life-lines of the islands, is it wise, where there are two such lines, to place them both in the same pair of hands? Short sea crossings and open sea crossings are different trades with different operational and regulatory requirements; what is the logic of bundling them into a single franchise, as presently for Arran, Bute and Mull?

Celebrity Circus

Now Geri's got the stamps licked So, Geri Halliwell has gone from UN goodwill ambassador to being pretty promotional face for, er, Royal Mail. Presumably this has something to do with her ability to disappear for a very long time and reappear all crumpled looking. Why Posh may have the X factor Simon Cowell, it is reported, wants Victoria Beckham to be a judge for his next X Factor show. "I got to know her in Los Angeles. Before then, my perception of her had been that she was quite snooty an...

Just Who Is This Prince of Darkness?; Profile: Lemony Snicket; His Cynical Children's Books Telling of Death and Misery Have Captivated Millions Across the World and Will Woo Millions More When Its Film Adaptation Is Released in Cinemas Next Week. It's All Baffling, Even to Its Mysterious Author

I wouldn't advise you to read this. In fact, it would be better if you didn't. There is no happy beginning, only a moderately happy middle and an indifferent end. On Sunday evening, the world premiere of the film adaptation of Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events will take place in Los Angeles. The film, which you shouldn't go to see, stars Jim Carrey as Count Olaf and a shadowy pro- file hunched over a typewriter as Snicket. He is shadowy because little is known about Snicket and ...

Muriel Cullen; Sister of Margaret Thatcher Who Married a Cardross Farmer

Mrs Muriel Cullen, the elder sister and "best friend" of Margaret Thatcher, was the prime mover in helping her husband build up a 900- acre farming business at Great Oakley, near Harwich. Using business instincts inherited by both daughters from their father, the alderman Alfred Roberts, the farm has prospered. Muriel went into farming after marrying William Cullen, a young farmer from Cardross, Dunbartonshire, who was keen to expand but felt held back in Scotland.

Raymond Goethals

Raymond Goethals, the Belgian soccer coach who steered Marseille to the European Champions Cup title in 1993, has died at the age of 83. Goethals was lauded for his five European Cup finals, victory in the European Champions Cup and for being a modest, simple man who successfully coached teams all over Europe and even South America.

In Memoriam; Brief Lives: Those We Have Lost in the Past Seven Days

Robert Wiseman, Dairy farmer; born April 18, 1916, died December 7, 2004. Founder of one of Scotland's most famous dairy companies, Wiseman started the firm which bears his name in East Kilbride in 1947, using a farm horse and cart to make deliveries. The company now has five dairies and 13 depots throughout Britain.The scale may have changed, with more emphasis on winning over the big supermarkets, but the basic philosophy remains the same.

Win Some, Lose Some, and the Water's Warmer

Coral reefs could be growing 35% faster by the next century, thanks to global warming. That's the conclusion of a controversial study which claims the effects of warmer waters might offset the damage to coral caused by greenhouse gases. Higher amounts of dissolved carbon dioxide reduce the levels of calcium and carbonate in seawater needed to make corals. But Ben McNeil, from Sydney's University of New South Wales, found that warmer water would increase the rate of coral calcification, outwei...

Aberdeen Fuels Rumours On Splits Agreement

ABERDEEN Asset Management fuelled talk that an agreement with the regulator on compensation for victims of the split-capital investment trust debacle is near after the company again pushed back its annual results by "approximately" a week. The Aberdeen-based fund manager, which was the biggest provider of splits, had pushed back its results a week until December 13, claiming its chief executive, Martin Gilbert, was going to be in Singapore on business and so could not see investors.

Talking Car Peps Up Tourist Industry in 'Frisco

THE babe with the sexy voice who is guiding you over the hilly streets of San Francisco and past magnificent views of the Golden Gate Bridge is not actually in the car. She is the car - a little yellow one with three wheels and attitude. This young woman is also tracking your position from a satellite orbiting the Earth to tell you about the city's famous landmarks, or instruct you to turn left because "a lot of yuppies live here", or warn you, with a hint of panic in her voice, to be careful...

Profits Collapse by 44% As Clydesdale Clears the Decks; Costs of Three-Year Investment Programme Blamed for Fall

CLYDESDALE Bank saw profits slump by 44% in the year to September 30 - in sharp contrast with the bullish growth recorded by rivals Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS. However, David Thorburn, chief operating officer, insisted one- off costs linked to Clydesdale's investment and reorganisation programme accounted for around half the fall in pre-tax earnings, which slipped to (pounds) 90m, down from (pounds) 161.4m in 2003.