Judges refer to it as the “bog standard murder”. One drunken young man argues with another after a night of binge drinking. In anger he reaches for the sharpest thing to hand, a broken bottle or a knife, and lashes out.

Almost half of all murders in Scotland are committed by offenders already on bail, an international conference on violence reduction was told yesterday.

Council bosses traded sexual favours for courses and promotion, a tribunal heard yesterday. Tom McNeil, 52, claims that he was forced to quit his senior post with Aberdeen City Council after he saw two managers having sex in the office.

The number of cases of sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) has risen steeply in Scotland. Chlamydia cases are four-times that of 1996, and cases of infectious syphilis increased more than 10-fold.

Regulators are set to rule on whether a fee-paying school should continue to enjoy charitable status. The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulators (OSCR) will decide if the High School of Dundee meets a new “public benefit” assessment.

Sir Tom Hunter, Scotland’s richest man, is pledging to give away at least £1bn to charity, the BBC has learned. The donation is thought to be the single most generous philanthropic commitment made by a Briton.

Community groups in Inverclyde will benefit from lots of hard studying done by the people who run them. Volunteers and full-time workers completed a 12-week community-based ‘Activate’ course organised by Inverclyde Community Development Trust to help them improve their skills.

City leader Jenny Dawe has been accused of overloading senior councillors with work after handing “two jobs” to some of them. The Lib Dem council leader has almost halved the number of senior councillors leading departments after May’s elections.

Scotland has increasing numbers of people who are living below the breadline, according to a survey which shows the north-south divide on poverty in Britain is getting wider.

Unions representing mental health staff will hold talks with Highland Council officials in a dispute over pay and working conditions. Almost 40 staff plan to take action from Tuesday if agreement cannot be reached in what has been described as a long-standing dispute.