A man has admitted abducting a young girl and tying her up during a rape attempt in an Aberdeenshire town. James Murison forced the girl, who is under 16, into his house in Huntly while she was delivering newspapers.

When NHS staff surveys were introduced by Susan Deacon, the then Health Minister, the idea was as a temperature check on the NHS that would identify any issues which deterred people from joining and remaining with the service.

Prisoners will no longer be entitled to automatic early release under new laws set to be approved at Holyrood. The Scottish Executive’s plans to overhaul sentencing are expected to be passed despite Conservative objections.

More than 5,000 charities are to be taken off the official register because they have not contacted the regulator before the deadline. They will lose the benefits of charitable status and the right to call themselves charities.

A row has broken out over a large mural depicting a Guantanamo Bay prisoner which has appeared on the side of a building in Angus. Miki Warren, 18, said she painted the controversial artwork to highlight the plight of suspected terrorists being held at the US camp in Cuba.

A children’s nursery, where youngsters were force-fed out-of-date food, was yesterday facing possible closure following a detailed investigation by the Care Commission. Officers from the welfare watchdog were called in to investigate the All Stars Nursery in the Woodside area of Aberdeen following complaints about the facility, understood to have been made by a number of worried parents.

Thousands of young people with diabetes could go blind before the age of 40, a conference will be told today. The “startling and deeply worrying” findings will be presented at the Diabetes UK Annual Professional Conference at the SECC in Glasgow. It is the UK’s largest with 3000 healthcare professionals due to attend.

A farm manager has admitted having sex with a 12-year-old girl he was teaching to horse-ride. The High Court in Glasgow heard that 49-year-old Peter Bryant also admitted having sex with a 15-year-old girl.

A heroin addict has been jailed for three months for leaving a child locked in an empty house and starving him for 24 hours. Rebecca Brister told Sheriff Robert McCreadie she wanted to be locked up to receive help for her addiction.

Cannabis plants with an estimated street value of £630,000 have been seized across Strathclyde. More than 2,000 plants were recovered from high value houses in Airdrie, Robroyston, Cambuslang, Clydebank, Battlefield and Budhill, in Glasgow.