FIRST MINISTER Alex Salmond said yesterday he was sure the opposition parties would not “stoop so low” as to force a defeat on his minority government when one of his MSPs goes off on maternity leave.

WENDY ALEXANDER, the woman touted by many as the next Scottish Labour leader, yesterday returned to her party’s front benches.

A FIFE mother has told of her heartache after her baby son’s grave was desecrated by sick vandals.

AN ARBROATH bus driver who admitted living off the earnings of prostitutes in two Dundee flats was yesterday ordered to pay more than £114,000 compensation when he appeared at the city’s sheriff court.

CENTRAL FIFE Nationalist MSP Tricia Marwick is taking the fight against the controversial proposal for ship-to-ship (STS) transfers of millions of tonnes of Russian crude oil in the Firth of Forth off Methil to Europe.

CHILDREN PAID a visit to Kinnoull Hill Woodland Park yesterday to help traditional woodworker Robin Wood carve a giant wooden Douglas fir cone.

A MAJOR poultry firm was fined £10,000 at Perth Sheriff Court yesterday for breaching previously agreed pollution levels from a chicken slaughtering factory in Coupar Angus.

A DUNDEE youth football team could be stripped of their league title after players allegedly became embroiled in ill-tempered scenes at a cup final last month.

NEW FLIGHT simulator technology which would allow British and American forces to train together from opposite sides of the Atlantic is likely to be introduced to RAF Leuch-ars.

HE INTRODUCED over 200 species of plants and trees to Scotland, including the Douglas fir that bears his name, and yesterday he returned to Scone Palace from beyond the grave to enlighten school children from Perth and Kinross.

A SWAN that was left with three pellets embedded in its head after an airgun attack is being nursed at Fife’s Middlebank Wildlife Centre.

MEMBERS OF a teaching union in Scotland will continue to teach sex education to youngsters, despite misgivings over the content of some of the programmes and a call that sex lessons should be given by health professionals.

WORK ON the Forth Road Bridge has been cancelled this weekend because of forecasts of poor weather.

AN ATTEMPT to create the world’s longest comic strip got under way in Dundee yesterday with the help of school children.

GLAMIS PRIMARY youngsters chose a rather regal destination for their involvement in Walk to School Week yesterday.

THE TRIAL of a Dundee United fan accused of being drunk in charge of a three-year-old child at a Scottish Cup tie in February was put off until July when the case called at Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday.

THE FAMOUS blue bonnet and red hackle will be on display tomorrow when The Black Watch Association rallies at its Aberfeldy monument to commemorate the first muster of the regiment in May, 1740.

A THREE-AND-A-HALF-MILE stretch of the Loch Leven Heritage Trail was officially opened by Sir David Montgomery this week.

GLENROTHES LABOUR MP John MacDougall is continuing to recuperate well after having a lung removed in his fight against asbestosis.

ONE OF the cultural highlights of Dundee’s arts calendar, the Degree Show, had thousands flocking to the official opening at Duncan of Jordanstone College last night.

SCOTLAND’S NEW Rural Affairs Minister, Richard Lochhead, will no doubt have an in-tray piled high with submissions and reports.