The Herald

[ Dunfermline's Search for a Striker... ]

DUNFERMLINE'S search for a striker has been given fresh impetus with the news that veteran Craig Brewster, above, will miss the start of the season. Manager David Hay said: "He has tweaked his cartilage a wee bit and the specialist reckoned he'd have to have an operation at some stage. We could wait, but we felt it was better to get it done now.

The Diary

Mayor ambition SO, how did First Minister Jack McConnell cope with London Mayor Ken Livingstone, who is always whining on that Scotland gets too much government dosh and that London should have more of it? After meeting the bold Ken during a trip to London this week, Jack tried to joke that if Mayor Livingstone had a vote in Scotland he would "probably vote SNP, so that he could get more money back into England from Scotland".

'A Tribute From City I Call Home'; Simply Wizard

J K Rowling yesterday received an honorary degree in recognition of her contribution to children's education. The author was acclaimed by the University of Edinburgh as she received a degree of doctor honoris causa.

Hall Cleared to Compete Despite Weekly Testosterone Injections

YACHTING The US sailor, Kevin Hall, has been given special exemption to compete in the Olympics despite taking a weekly injection of the male hormone, testosterone, which is on the doping banned list. Hall, who sails in the single-handed Finn class, is a testicular- cancer survivor and has been cleared by US and international governing bodies to compete in Athens after assessment by an independent referee.

Argentina Manager Breathes Easier After Saviola Hat Trick

Javier Saviola scored a 15-minute hat trick as Argentina crushed Ecuador 6-1 in the Copa America on Wednesday. In Group B's earlier game, Uruguay defender Paolo Montero celebrated his return to international football with a late equaliser in a 2-2 draw with Mexico. However, Uruguayan substitute Richard Morales provided the low point of the double bill in Chiclayo when he was sent off just two minutes after coming on for an ugly challenge on Pavel Pardo.

Miller Confident Norwegian Adventure Is Sound Move

CHARLIE Miller last night completed a surprise move to the Norwegian side Brann Bergen when he signed a two-and-a-half year deal. Miller, who insisted he had not shelved his ambition by leaving the Bank of Scotland Premierleague, was unable to agree terms on a new contract with Dundee United, while offers from Rotherham and the Spanish La Liga side, Levante, failed to materialise.

Rae Ready to Take On Moore's Mantle; Committed Midfielder Could Begin Second Spell at Ibrox in Dream Role of Captain, Says Darryl Broadfoot

CRAIG Moore's desire to represent Australia at the Olympic Games has cost him his cap-taincy and his future at Ibrox. It might also have indirectly presented Alex Rae with an unexpected bonus on his return to his boyhood heroes. While Rangers announced that the Australian was available for transfer, 35-year-old Rae was yesterday used to promote the club's pre-season friendly with Tottenham Hotspur at Ibrox later this month. It could well be the first of many public engagements in which he par...

Injury Forces Watson to Withdraw From Open

Tom Watson, the five-times Open champion, withdrew yesterday from next week's Open at Royal Troon, citing a shoulder and arm injury. His fellow American Fred Funk also pulled out, and the two vacancies are likely to be added to local final qualifying this weekend.

Monty Finds Form at Home; Scot Revels in Return Over the Border As Bjorn Finds Hope

Thomas Bjorn, the troubled Danish Ryder Cup star, screwed his head back on yesterday with an opening three-under-par 69 in the Barclays Scottish Open following his catharsis on Tuesday. There were no outward signs of the torment he talked about then, and spectators must have wondered what all the fuss was about.

Mickelson Provides His Audience with a Masters Class in Woodwork; Great Escapologist Goes Round in One-Over to Lie Seven Shots Behind, but It Could Have Been so Much Worse

THE biggest player of the day and one of the biggest crowds of the day but, in the end, the leaderboard remained unbreached. Phil Mickelson's one-over-par round of 72 may have left him seven shots off the pace after the first round of the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond, but no-one watching was left feeling short-changed by the US Masters champion's performance.

Partick Destined for First Division As Last Throw of Dice Fails

PARTICK Thistle's fight to remain in the Scottish Premier League appeared to be over last night after the Scottish Football Association dismissed their appeal against the decision to allow Inverness Caledonian Thistle promotion. A three-man SFA committee, chaired by Lord McLean, decided the Firhill club had no grounds for appeal under SFA article 1331. Partick had insisted this would be their final throw of the dice, although club officials who emerged at the end of the hearing at 10.30pm ref...

Arteta Out of Ibrox, Moore Set to Follow

THE transformation in the playing personnel at Ibrox continued apace last night when Mikel Arteta returned to Spain to join Primera Liga side Real Sociedad in a (pounds) 2.6m deal. The 22-year-old midfielder, who is to sign a four-year contract with the Basque club, said: "Months ago, I knew that this was a possibility, and I've done everything possible to make it become a reality. I have family here, and this is the club I supported from childhood."

Don't Panic Over Absence of New Faces, Says Lennon

Celtic midfielder Neil Lennon has told supporters not to panic over the club's lack of activity in the transfer market over the summer. The departure of Henrik Larsson to Barcelona and Johann Mjallby to Levante has not been countered by new arrivals at Celtic Park.

Passion's Fruits and Labour

Visual Art Enchanting the Eye: Dutch Paintings of the Golden Age, Queen's Gallery, Edinburgh 4/5 Dutch painting of the Golden Age. Even the popular term for the period is bathed in a rosy retrospective glow. But what this excellent exhibition also reminds us is that despite their familiarity, these seventeenth-century paintings are also irredeemably strange. The world they occupy, one in which vast wealth and merchant success were tempered by the anxiety of being, as Simon Schama put it, "an ...

Talking About a Revolution; Best Known for His Painting, Flag, Jasper Johns' Work Was a Groundbreaker. Now, His First Major British Show in 30 Years Is Here. By Moira Jeffrey

Jasper Johns, whose first major British show in almost 30 years opens tomorrow at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, is in that tiny category of artists whose best work can genuinely be described as revolutionary. In 1957, in a show at Leo Castelli's gallery in New York, he abruptly changed the way we see and paint the world. He made the work for which he is best known, Flag, in 1955, a painted rendering of the stars and stripes. Once exhibited, his work's importance was recognised ...

The 'Disposable Children' of Operation Shock and Awe

I DID not know Gordon Gentle, the 19-year-old fusilier from Pollok in Glasgow who was buried on Wednesday. The first I was aware of his life came with the announcement of his death following a roadside explosion in Basra. Judging from the hundreds of friends and neighbours who joined his family at the funeral, he was a special young man. Not special in the sense of being a gung-ho hero, straight out of a comic book, but special in the sense of being an ordinary, decent, guy trying to do his b...

Too High a Price for Hocus-Pocus

DAVID Hume would be proud. We are all empiricists now. From the too-good-to-be-true diet fad to the war in Iraq, the call is the same - show us the evidence. Today the police practise intelligence- led policing; our teachers use evidence-based teaching. But they are lagging long behind other professionals. Our nurses and doctors have long known the importance of nursing and medicine that has been tested and proven to work. So it would be interesting to know exactly what Malcolm Chisholm's adv...

Sovereignty As Defined in International Law

THE chaos in Iraq continues unabated even after the supposed "return of sovereignty" to a country supposedly governed by US- chosen Iraqis. Messrs Bush and Blair were either unaware of the meaning of "sovereignty" in international law or purposely chose to ignore it in their quest for self-aggrandisement.

How Germans Manage Healthier Eating

Lorraine Wilson's feature on German healthy eating (July 8) highlighted the fact that there are very significant differences in a well-informed society which places good health and exercise at the very centre of social progress. Much of that is consumer-led, unlike in the UK, where passive consumption of the easiest-available option seems to be the general rule. As a regular visitor to Germany I'm always very conscious of the huge variety of fresh produce on sale and the marked lack of pre- p...

Soldier's Funeral

HOW sad that the cleric in charge of the service for the poor young Scottish soldier lost in Iraq recently felt it necessary to make a political point at his funeral. Why not make political protests using the same mechanisms as the rest of the population instead of using the funeral occasion opportunistically as a platform to get headlines? I feel sorrow and anger for the poor family who are now surrounded in a media flurry because yet another religious representative can't resist the opportu...