The Herald

Clydesdale Bank Axes 1000 Jobs Australian Owners to Close 'Unprofitable' Branches

A GREAT Scottish institution suffered a further reversal of its fortunes yesterday when the Australian owner of the Clydesdale Bank announced it was axing nearly 1000 jobs in Scotland. They are among 1700 posts which will go at National Australia Bank's UK operations, including Clydesdale and the Leeds-based Yorkshire Bank.

Smoothie Machines Take Their Place On the Food Front Line

THE fruit smoothie was yesterday unveiled as the latest weapon in the battle to overturn Scotland's poor record on child health. From the start of next term, schools in one of the most deprived areas of Scotland will ban fizzy drinks and replace them with healthier alternatives.

New Czar Is Told to Sort Out Health of Scots Children

MINISTERS yesterday named Scotland's first child health czar as the lifestyle and diet of young people moved to the centre of the general election campaign. Morgan Jamieson, the clinical and medical director of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, at Yorkhill, Glasgow, will start on Monday.

Us Holds 10,500 in Iraqi Jails As Numbers Double

THE number of prisoners held by the United States in Iraq has more than doubled in the last six months. A spokesman said the US military was holding about 10,500 suspects at three main prisons in Iraq.

Standard Life Accused of Curbing Dissent

STANDARD Life was accused by members yesterday of trying to stage- manage its annual meeting next month to stifle dissent. The insurer, under fire for falling bonuses and the pounds-2.75m pension increase for Sandy Crombie, chief executive, has withdrawn members' right to pre-register questions.

Half of Young Too Shy to Ask Sex Advice From Gp

ALMOST half of young Scots are too embarrassed to talk to their doctors about sex. A study carried out by a health education charity found that 46- per cent of 16-24-year-olds would not be able to face discussing their sexual health on a visit to their GP.

Party Plays Name Game in Election Run-Up

A LEAKED memo from Michael Howard's war room has revealed the opposition wants broadcasters to call it by its "official" name - the Conservative Party. Michael Salter, Tory head of broadcasting, e-mailed TV chiefs to say: "In the run-up to the election is there any way people could call us Conservatives rather than Tories?

Historic Journey for Wallace's Sword

WILLIAM Wallace's sword, one of Scotland's national treasures, left the country yesterday for the first time in more than 700 years. The 5ft 4in blade will form the centrepiece of an exhibition in Manhattan's Grand Central Station in New York during Tartan Week celebrations, which begin today.

Executive Figures Reveal That One Quarter of Scottish Children Are Still Living in Poverty

ONE quarter of Scotland's children are living in poverty, according to government figures released yesterday. The figures show the trend is down on 1997 levels, when the proportion was one third.

The Cairngorm Landscape That Really Is Older Than the Hills Research Adds Millions of Years to the Age of Mountains

THE characteristic landscape of some of the most breathtaking scenery in Scotland really is older than the hills. New research has revealed that the deep glens and spectacular corries of the Cairngorm mountains were formed millions of years earlier than previously thought.

Valium Abuse Poses Death Threat for Drug Addicts

ILLICIT Valium is one of the most popular drugs among abusers in Scotland, ranking just behind cannabis and heroin, according to a new survey. There is concern that Scots are not aware of the dangers of taking and mixing such antianxiety pills, and these fears are being raised at a conference in Stirling in the wake of the latest findings.

Willetts Seizes On Brown's Tax Rises

THE Tories last night leapt on new economic analysis which showed Gordon Brown's taxraising 2002 budget resulted in average take-home pay falling in real terms in 2003/4, the first annual fall since the recession of the early 1990s. "This is a devastating evaluation of what Labour have done to hard-working families.

Nervous Rangers Watch As Their Wounded Christian Soldiers On Defender Puts His Trust in Power of Prayer

HE should have been playing for his country in a World Cup qualifier. But Marvin Andrews last night placed his faith in a higher authority in an effort to convince concerned Rangers staff and befuddled experts everywhere that a torn ligament in his knee need not curtail his season, far less his career. The 29-year-old Rangers centre-half had been informed by two knee injury specialists and Ian McGuinness, his own club doctor, that cruciate ligament damage in his left leg required urgent atten...

Girl Killed After She Steps Off Bus Near Her Home Ten-Year-Old Was with Twin

A10-YEAR-OLD girl has been knocked down and killed after stepping off her school bus alongside her twin sister and older brother. Joanna Wilson died almost instantly after she walked into the path of a white Citroen Berlingo van as it rounded a bend in the road, just yards from her home.

Judges Throw Out Legal Challenge to New Town Ravenscraig Regeneration Back On Track

THE transformation of the former Ravenscraig steelworks site into a new town was given a huge boost yesterday after judges rejected a crucial legal challenge. The pounds-1bn blueprint will see the area in Lanarkshire between Motherwell and Wishaw transformed, with thousands of houses, schools, business parks and a shopping centre erected on the country's largest urban derelict site.

Flu Forces Hospital to Cut Services

HEALTH workers could be immunised after a flu outbreak forced the largest hospital in the Western Isles to halt admissions to a major ward, it was announced yesterday. The Specials Ward of Western Isles Hospital in Stornoway is now closed to new patients, except emergency paediatric and orthopaedic admissions, as the number of staff off with flu has begun to affect the level of service that can be offered.

New Potter Set to Smash Us Record

Up with the Lark? It May Be in Your Genes

DO you rise with the lark - or are you a night owl? For the early birds who think being the former involves nothing more than will- power and an alarm clock, think again. You may be genetically predisposed to getting up at the crack of dawn. Scientists in America believe they have identified a gene that could be at the root of irregular sleeping patterns.

Mcconnell Presides Over Pounds-3m Exodus of Officials

JACK McConnell's arrival as first minister coincided with a costly exodus of senior civil servants, it emerged yesterday. In his first full year in office, early retirement costs within the Scottish Executive rose 70-per cent from pounds-1.9m to pounds- 3.1m. The year before they had fallen by pounds-850,000.

Scots Tories Promise Pounds-916m in Tax Cuts

SCOTTISH Tories yesterday set out their spending plans and pounds- 916m in tax cuts if they were to win power at Holyrood in two years, with the promise that a Conservative chancellor at Westminster would retain spending levels for at least three years after winning the general election. At a news conference in Edinburgh, Oliver Letwin, shadow chancellor, gave what he called "the Letwin guarantee'' that Labour's block grant plans until 2007-08 would be retained, even though pounds-35bn of sav...