One of the victims of a Scottish paedophile ring has landed a major book deal to tell the story behind the decade of abuse she suffered.

A nursing home in Midlothian is set to close down despite concerns that residents will be moved away from their friends and families.

Residents of an Edinburgh street have flooded the Scottish Government with protests about a proposed care home extension.

Staff in care homes, hospitals and community centre will be able to collaborate more easily under a new scheme to be launched by Edinburgh University.

A care worker from Edinburgh has appeared in court in Albania facing child sex charges. David Brown has spent more than a year in prison in the Albanian capital, Tirana.

A nurse was reported to watchdogs after she ordered dementia patients out of their beds at 5.30am.

A senior nurse who slapped a dementia patient at a North-east care home, has been struck off. A hearing of the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard that the incident took place in March 2005.

The Lord Advocate, The Rt. Hon. Elish Angiolini QC, today welcomed the creation of a sexual offences team in the Lothian and Borders Procurator Fiscal Area.

Homelessness in parts of rural Scotland is increasing while targets to help eradicate the problem is leaving council housing officials struggling to meet demand for accommodation.

{mosimage}In Argyll and Bute, where almost 1000 people have applied as homeless, the number of households in temporary accommodation has risen by 25% in a year.

More than 200 households are in council-managed temporary accommodation, and in Oban families can wait two years before a permanent home becomes available.

Local authorities, which have been charged with reducing non-priority cases by 50% before 2009, say the policy is creating extra workload for councils as more people need to be found somewhere to live.

In a report to councillors, Malcolm MacFadyen, head of community regeneration at Argyll and Bute Council, said: “The number of households which the council will have a statutory duty to accommodate in temporary accommodation is likely to increase over the next five years as the move to eradicate priority need is implemented.

Scotland’s flagship free care scheme for the elderly was in turmoil last night after a judge ruled that it was wrong for councils to pay the care costs of thousands of pensioners in private nursing homes.