The Herald

[ Economic Growth Is Gathering Momentum,... ]

ECONOMIC growth is gathering momentum, with optimism and output reaching their highest levels for more than five years, according to a closely-watched survey of business trends. While the results of the BDO Stoy Hayward study may cheer Gordon Brown, the chancellor, evidence of building inflationary pressures may disappoint consumers by making an increase in borrowing costs this week more likely.

Celebration of the Double Act That Created Motoring History

ROLLS-Royce will celebrate its centenary tomorrow at the very spot where the company was founded. On May 4, 1904, Charles Rolls met Henry Royce at the Midland Hotel in Manchester and the two men then formed the company, which now employs 35,000 people worldwide, including about 3000 in Scotland.

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Action for art TODAY at 2pm, the Crawford Arts Centre in St Andrews launches a petition to oppose the threat by the Scottish arts council to ends its core funding in a year's time.

Music: Explosions in the Sky/Four Tet, Tramway, Glasgow

5/5 For Kieran Hebden, who is Four Tet, it was a little unfortunate that while he began his set in the cavern of Tramway 1, next door in Tramway 4 one of the most inspiring American bands of the moment were also limbering up for a magisterial performance of their own. Four Tet's complex, glistening folktronica is a beautiful sound on earphones or in the home but, from one or two songs heard here, it is not suited to the stage and the bombast of high amplification - its subtleties and delicacy...

Thinking Is About All We're Fit For

I write this dressed in shorts and a headband, pedalling. Through a dynamo on my exercise bike, I power my laptop. I have weights on my wrists that make my arms harder to lift, and the keys on my computer are of a specially spring-loaded design, forcing me to expend over a calorie with every keystroke. Already, the effort involved in writing this paragraph has nearly made up for my breakfast doughnut. I am Britain's healthy, happy future. Actually, I'm not. Any of it. The only bit of the abov...

Music Our Europe, King's, Edinburgh

3/5 The arts, at the top of their game, are better at prophecy and protest than celebration, but it is at least significant that there is an impetus to use them to mark political milestones. With Scotland's most prominent member of one of the accession states, Polish actor, director and entrepreneur Tomek Borkowy and his wife Laura Mackenzie Stuart at the helm, this gala scored over many similar events in its focus. Each nation was represented in music and literature, the texts read by Sheena...

Music Mum, Animal Collective, Tramway, Glasgow

4/5 Changes are afoot in Animal Collective. With five albums already to their name, the duo that toured last year with Four Tet has gained a member (on drums) and swopped the acoustic guitars for their electric equivalents. Opting for one lengthy song cycle, the music is still as perplexing, but has a dynamic that was previously absent from their live shows and which remains discreet on their recorded work.

Trans Am, King Tut's, Glasgow

4/5 Trans Am have been around since 1992, releasing oodles of records dominated by unsettling keyboard-driven soundscapes and bursts of rock noise. Starting uncertainly - if loudly - with an odd meld of several songs, the set gradually gained in power and pace, until it reached a series of breathtaking climaxes. Along this uneven musical journey, brittle white funk, booming bass charges, discordant riffage and wailing Frippery were all utilised, used up and discarded.

Music: Wire, Tramway, Glasgow

5/5 Strange thing, the Triptych festival. In an almost-empty room at the back of the Tramway in Glasgow, someone is playing an old Throbbing Gristle record over the PA. Meanwhile, outside in the bar, two members of Throbbing Gristle are meant to be playing records but are instead chatting happily to fans. For a celebration of all that is glorious about alternative music, it does feel rather unfocused. Still, you can always rely on Wire to provide a bit of focus. For the best part of 30 years ...

So Young and yet Light Years Ahead

Music BBC Young Musician of the Year Finals, Usher Hall, Edinburgh Michael Tumelty 4/5

Us 'Crisis Point' As Torture Claims Widen; Warning of Backlash Over Iraq

THE row over the alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners by coalition forces intensified last night after David Kay, the coalition's former chief weapons inspector, said public outrage in America was likely to fuel demands for the US to withdraw its troops. Dr Kay offered a bleak assessment of postwar Iraq, saying a civil rebellion was emerging and, due to a lack of proper intelligence, coalition forces were now on extraordinarily dangerous ground.

Computers Fiasco Could Lead to Criminals Going Free

CRIMINALS could walk free because the Crown Office's new multi- million-pound computer system is not working, leading members of the procurator-fiscal service warned yesterday. They say there is a backlog of thousands of unmarked cases because the new Future Office System (FOS) keeps crashing when they are trying to mark cases. Fiscals believe it is "inevitable" some cases will be marked "no proceedings" because they will go beyond their time bar.

Party Rejects Sharon Pullout Plan

ARIEL Sharon's party overwhelmingly rejected his US-backed Gaza pullout plan yesterday, inflicting a stinging defeat that could trigger a political crisis. Accepting with regret the results of the right-wing Likud's referendum, the Israeli prime minister said he intended to stay in office but gave no clear indication whether he would press ahead with a plan settlers had branded a reward for Palestinian terror.

Rankin Wins Crime Writers' 'Oscar' for Rebus Novel

IAN Rankin, the Scots novelist, has won the top US award for crime writing. The 44-year-old picked up an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Resurrection Men, a novel based on John Rebus, the taciturn Edinburgh-based detective.

America has the Hero It Hoped for; Hostage Breaks Free After Three Weeks in Captivity

AMID the maelstrom of bad publicity surrounding the torture photographs and the flawed tale of Jessica Lynch, he is the new hero America has been looking for. In an escape which could have been scripted by Hollywood and whose timing could scarcely have been better, US hostage Thomas Hamill was said to be in good health yesterday and recovering with American forces in Iraq after apparently fleeing from captors who had held him hostage for three weeks.

Us Back-Pedals Over Falluja Commander

A FORMER general under Saddam Hussein, said to have been put in command of Iraqi forces in Falluja, is still being vetted by American army chiefs. General Richard Myers, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, made the claim on three different television shows, in a move apparently calculated to counter reporting that US forces had suffered a virtual defeat in Falluja and had turned to Saddam's former military chiefs to help.

Glennie Joins Burns Concert Cast

EVELYN Glennie, the world's best-known solo percussionist, is to perform in a Scottish line-up at this year's Burns an' A' That gala concert at Culzean Castle, Ayrshire, on June 4. Glennie joins violin virtuoso Nicola Benedetti and Karen Matheson, of Capercaillie, with the orchestra and chorus of Scottish Opera conducted by Sir Richard Armstrong.

Knockhill Motorcycle Racer Dies in Accident On Last Bend

AN investigation was under way last night after a motor- cyclist was killed in an accident at Knockhill racing circuit in Fife. A further six people died on Scotland's roads in a series of accidents over the weekend.

An Intensity Light Years Ahead of Competition

NICOLA Benedetti was the most seasoned and mature of the finalists in the competition in which five young musicians each played a concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and its chief conductor, Ilan Volkov. The Ayrshire-born violinist is an experienced soloist, having played with many of the Scottish orchestras, and having featured as a soloist this season with the Scottish Ensemble.

Benedetti Is First Scot to Win Young Musician Title; Virtuosity Delights Usher Hall Audience

SHE has been playing violin since she was four, at eight she was leading the National Children's Orchestra of Scotland, one year later left home to study at the Yehudi Menuhin Music School in Surrey, and at 14 she was named Prodigy of the Year. Now 16-year-old Nicola Benedetti has become the first Scottish musician to win the coveted title of BBC Young Musician of the Year.