Social factors – rather than genetics – are to blame for huge variations in ill health and life expectancy around the world, a report concludes.

THE Scottish Government has been warned it may have to put many of its promises on hold to pay off the rapidly escalating costs of free personal care for the elderly.

Two care workers with decades of service between them have vowed never to work in the profession again – after being prosecuted over a throwaway remark about a disabled resident in a residential home.

AN Inverness’s council-run day centre has been ordered to bring in emergency measures following a damning report by Scottish Government watchdog the Care Commission.

A former health chief has admitted computer child pornography charges for the second time in five years.

The Government is to spend more than £10 million on clearing up landmines in Afghanistan, a minister said today.

Access to good palliative care needs to improve, and it must be more consistently provided, warns a report by Audit Scotland.