The number of inmates freed early from Scottish prisons who have been sent back to jail for breaching their electronic tagging orders has nearly tripled in the past five months.

For Anne MacDonald becoming a foster parent was the fulfilment of an ambition she had harboured since childhood. Mrs MacDonald is one of more than 2000 foster carers throughout Scotland who have opened up their homes and hearts to some of society’s most vulnerable and needy youngsters.

A campaign aimed at recruiting hundreds of new foster carers across Scotland has been launched. Fostering Network Scotland said another 1,700 homes were needed to help care for vulnerable children in Scotland.

Country walks can help reduce depression and raise self-esteem according to new research, which has led to calls for “ecotherapy” to become a recognised treatment for people with mental health problems.

Scottish police forces have launched a new strategy to deal with growing cocaine use, urging middle-class recreational users to “boycott” the drug. Gill Wood, the national drugs co-ordinator for the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA), says that young professionals who take cocaine should consider the “horrendous violence” involved in the supply of the drug.

Bloodsucking ticks carrying a potentially fatal disease are increasingly moving into Scotland’s cities as a result of global warming, campaigners warned yesterday.

The first act of an SNP government could be a reprieve for a local hospital facing closure, it emerged yesterday. The party has promised to save the accident and emergency department at Monklands Hospital if it gets into power. And the move could even earn leader Alex Salmond a vote for First Minister from the Labour benches if the local MSP decides to put her local hospital before party loyalty.

Elderly and vulnerable adults who attend two day-care centres in Inverness could be affected by strike action after staff unanimously voted to take industrial action yesterday.

A Deeside man who had sex with a 15-year-old girl was yesterday spared a prison sentence despite warnings that he poses a “very high risk” of reoffending.

The future of a new £100 million prison, set to house one tenth of Scotland’s inmates, has been thrown into uncertainty after a public sector bid to run the jail was rejected.