A drug rehabilitation service for women and their children praised by Jack McConnell is to shut after its funding was axed. As one of only three residential centres for female addicts and their families in Scotland, Brenda House has been tackling drug abuse for 18 years.

The number of British soldiers, sailors and airmen caught using Class A drugs such as crack cocaine, heroin and ecstasy jumped to 56.9% of those who tested positive for illegal drugs last year, The Herald reveals.

Increased pressure on pre-school education in Moray looks likely following the announcement of the closure of yet another nursery in the area. Parents at the Cherry Tree, based at Elgin’s Dr Gray’s Hospital, have been told the facility – which caters for children up to the age of five – may have to close in June.

Nurses frustrated with abuse from drunken patients have pinned up posters in hospital waiting rooms in Angus showing the growing number of alcohol-related admissions.

Immigration officials and police have launched a series of dawn raids across the west of Scotland in the first crackdown on so-called sham marriages. They said West Africans have been arranging bogus marriages to British citizens to gain entry to the UK under false pretences.

A woman raped at knifepoint by a teenage heroin addict revealed yesterday that thoughts of her young granddaughter sustained her during the terrifying ordeal. Anne Doherty, 50, above, thought she was going to die when she was attacked while working at a care home.

Scottish scientists hope they are on the way to finding a cure for a rare type of kidney cancer after studying a gene linked to the disease. Wilms’ tumour affects about 70 children a year in the UK and thousands around the world.

Scottish scientists have discovered a brain abnormality which causes Fragile X syndrome, a common form of learning difficulty, raising hopes that a therapy could be found. The condition affects one in 4000 children and adults, and can cause slow learning and lead to behavioural problems similar to autism.

A man who stabbed a teacher to death in North Lanarkshire eight years ago has been found after he went missing from his home almost a week ago. Anthony O’Brien, 37, was sent to the state hospital at Carstairs in 2000 after admitting the attack on Bill Scott in Cumbernauld.

A teenager who raped a care worker at knifepoint may never be released from jail after a judge imposed a lifelong restriction order on him. Steven Malcolm, 19, is only the second dangerous criminal in Scotland to be subjected to the order, which involves monitoring for the rest of his life.