AIDS charities have criticised the sentence handed down to an Italian chef who recklessly infected his lover with HIV and hepatitis C. Giovanni Mola was yesterday jailed for nine years. He refused to wear condoms after beginning a sexual relationship with a woman in Edinburgh in 2003.

A councillor aged 63 has accused his own local authority of age discrimination after it failed to interview him for a job.

A Sheriff has come under fire for telling a drink-driver to find out how much alcohol he could get away with behind the wheel. Sheriff Robert McCreadie told James Thomson, who was in the dock: “What you should do, and the information is freely available on the internet, is find out how many bottles of beer you can drink and safely go on to drive.

A diverse range of innovative social service projects and organisations have made the shortlist for Care Accolades 2007, the “Oscars” for the sector in Scotland. Now in its fourth year, the Care Accolades, organised by the SSSC in partnership with the Scottish Executive, is Scotland’s only established awards ceremony for the social service sector. 

A Glasgow priest who had sex with Angelika Kluk has admitted having another affair – with a church musician. Details of the sexual relationship between Father Gerry Nugent and Sarah Howie were revealed by the priest this afternoon at the High Court in Edinburgh.

A big-hearted community has joined together to raise money in memory of murdered Glasgow gran Agnes Mechen. Friends and neighbours of 64-year-old – known as Nessa – organised a fundraising event in aid of National Missing Person’s Helpline charity which helped the family of the pensioner when she went missing from her Govanhill home.

A revolutionary new treatment to ease pain among diabetes sufferers will be introduced at a clinic on the outskirts of Glasgow. Within the next few weeks doctors at the Essential Health Clinic in Rutherglen will offer anodyne therapy’ for patients who suffer from the painful condition Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy.

An Arbroath councillor has called for accommodation for migrant workers to be inspected and regulated following the death of a young Czech man in a caravan blaze. Petr Adamnik, 28, died after fire engulfed three caravans at Birkhill Farm, just outside Arbroath, in the early hours of Monday.

A councillor convicted of racially abusing a constituent has been selected to stand for Labour at next month’s local elections. Danny Meikle was fined after a row at his surgery with Tecwyn Thomas, about open-cast mining. He was convicted in 2005 of a racially aggravated breach of the peace for calling the Welshman “boyo”.

Hospital staff are to try to seek out superbugs and treat them before they threaten the lives of patients. NHS Grampian wants to reduce infections – such as MRSA, the flesh-eating bug – in high dependency and intensive care units by 25%.