A report into Scotland’s most notorious child sex abuse scandal has concluded that Orkney Islands Council was negligent and an eight-year-old girl should not have been taken into care, The Scotsman has learned.

Twenty years ago the idea of using tiny balloons to inflate blood vessels as a treatment for heart attack may have seemed pure science fiction.

Pupils will take the plunge in the north-east this month with a sponsored swim to raise funds for their caring friends. While most youngsters enjoy free time after school, for many others homework means just that – they are the young carers who look after ailing or disabled parents or relatives.

Deaths from severe heart attacks after hospital admission have nearly halved in six years due to advances in medical treatment. In the largest study of its kind, reseach led by Edinburgh University analysed more than 44,000 patients in 14 countries.

A scientist will tell delegates at a major asthma conference in Glasgow today that a mother’s diet in pregnancy could affect a child’s chance of developing asthma.