Scotland’s political parties set out their plans on international aid at a hustings event on Sunday. Following a call by eight of Scotland’s leading aid agencies, the main parties detailed what they intended to do to tackle global poverty.

A new single contact point for inquiries to Edinburgh’s social care services has been hailed in an independent survey. Social Care Direct was set up last year to provide a first point of access to all adult users of social services across the city.

Staff at Quarriers, one of Scotland’s biggest charities, have voted for strike action in a dispute over pay. Unison, the public-sector union, said its members had voted two to one in favour of a strike after talks with management broke down. They also voted by three to one in favour of industrial action short of a strike.

The First party political broadcast by the British National Party specifically aimed at Scotland will be aired tonight, prompting fears of an increase in racist attacks.

Workers at two day-care centres in Inverness are to ballot for strike action over transport cut-backs that they fear will disrupt the lives of some clients.

An Algerian asylum seeker and her one-year-old son were sexually assaulted in a racially motivated daylight attack. The victim was left “completely traumatised” after also being verbally abused, pelted with stones and repeatedly kicked as she walked with the child in his pram.

A crackdown on “boy racers” in Aberdeen has seen Grampian Police seize 50 vehicles over the past 12 months. A further 329 motorists received warnings from officers about the standards of their driving.

One of Britain’s top 10 crime lords was jailed for a record 12 years and nine months yesterday after a three-year covert operation by the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency.

Portable drug-testing kits, which will check whether suspects were under the influence of illegal substances when they broke the law, are to be trialed at three Scottish police stations.

More than 80% of people in Scotland know at least two friends who have experienced mental distress, research suggests. The Mental Health Foundation research also revealed many people did not want to admit their problems to friends for fear of what they would think.