A PATIENT from a psychiatric hospital has gone missing in Edinburgh. Stephen Larnder, 42, an in-patient at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, which offers treatment for acute mental health conditions, was reported missing yesterday.

Charities and legal campaigners yesterday attacked a court ruling, claiming it would limit the choice of school for parents of children with severe learning difficulties.

IT IS 1am, and the relentless banging sound made by an angry prisoner trying to kick in his cell door echoes through the cell blocks and shows no sign of abating.

Aberdeen City Council has vowed to work in partnership to drive up performance in its social work services.

Alzheimer Scotland is launching its brand new fundraising campaign entitled Care for a Curry?

A MAN was jailed yesterday after he conned the benefits system out of nearly £80,000 for 36 bogus children.

VOLUNTARY organisations yesterday launched a scathing attack on the politicians and officials who run Aberdeen City Council.

On the final day of a hearing by the accounts watchdog into the authority’s “precarious” financial plight, charities united in condemning the council for losing the confidence and trust of the people of the city.

They claimed the ruling Liberal Democrat and SNP administration was guilty of failing to negotiate, consult or communicate with key agencies amid an atmosphere of mistrust and a “bullying” culture.

And Paul Hannan, the head of one leading city charity, said: “We want change – change away from the many bad practices that blight Aberdeen City Council.”

Mr Hannan was giving evidence on the second day of a hearing by the Accounts Commission, chaired by John Baillie, into the council’s finances. He is chief executive of the Cyrenians, a charity for the homeless, which is one of the voluntary-sector organisations hit by the council’s £27 million spending cuts.

A groundbreaking study of Scots’ DNA is being launched to discover why the nation has the highest rates of multiple sclerosis in the world.

It is hoped the research, which involves scouring the genes of hundreds of people, will explain why patients contract the devastating disease and help the development of new treatments.

The populations of Orkney and Shetland are the focus of the investigation as MS is more common in the two island communities than anywhere else.

Residents who suffer from the illness will be asked to give blood, as well as locals who have no history of the disease, so scientists can compare the samples.

They hope to untangle the genetic code which makes people vulnerable to MS and see if their blood responds differently to a virus which it is thought might trigger the illness.

SCOTLAND’S first specialist legal service for children and young people who need advice and representation from a solicitor has been launched in Edinburgh.

At least 450 new foster carers must be recruited in Scotland over the next year to provide stable homes for children in care, a charity has said.