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.

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.

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.

The University of Glasgow is helping in the fight against heart disease with the appointment of a unique nursing lectureship. Susan Kennedy is the first British Heart Foundation Lecturer in Cardiac Care – the only such post funded by the BHF in the UK.

Capability Scotland has launched its Vote2007 website, which will aim to encourage disabled people to participate fully in the forthcoming 2007 Scottish elections. The Vote2007 website will provide useful and easy to understand information for disabled people on voting

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.