The bodies of two men have been found in the hold of a ship docked at Ayr harbour, police have said.

Officers were alerted by a shipping company to the discovery on the 90m-long, Antigua-registered cargo ship, The Pascal, at about 1440 BST.

Strathclyde Police said inquiries had begun to establish how the bodies came to be in the hold area and efforts were being made to identify the men.

It is believed the men may have been on the ship without the crew’s knowledge.

Details of where the crew are from have not been released by police.

It is understood they are foreign and do not speak English.

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The European beaver is to be reintroduced to Scotland for the first time in more than 400 years, the Scottish Government has announced.

Environment Minister Michael Russell has given the go-ahead for up to four beaver families to be released in Knapdale, Argyll, on a trial basis.

The beavers will be caught in Norway and released in spring 2009.

Mr Russell said: “This is an exciting development for wildlife enthusiasts all over Scotland and beyond.”

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Two Lithuanian men have been arrested in connection with the discovery of a woman’s head and hands on a beach.

Police have identified the dead woman as Jolanta Bledaite, 35, from Alytus, Lithuania.

Her head was found on the beach at Arbroath by two young sisters on Tuesday morning. Her hands were later discovered by police.

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GLASGOW health chiefs are desperately trying to trace anyone who had contact with a man suffering a drug-resistant form of TB.

The man, from overseas, is being treated in an isolation ward in the city’s Gartnavel Hospital.

It’s thought to be the first-ever Scottish case of XDRTB, an extreme strain of the disease.

It is prevalent in other parts of the world, including Africa, but this is the first case in the UK for five years.

Reports today said the man was a Somalian in his 30s, who was screened for infectious diseases when he arrived at Heathrow Airport last November seeking political asylum.

An X-ray revealed TB scars on his lungs, but the disease was not active and after an immigration interview he was allowed to travel to Scotland.

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The Scottish Premier League has agreed to pay the wages of Gretna’s unpaid players - helping the club to stay in business until the end of the season.

The league has given the club a six-figure advance of money due to them at the end of the current campaign.

The club’s administrator told the SPL they are confident the club can fulfil their remaining fixtures.

David Elliot gave the assurances at a meeting requested by league bosses at Hampden Park on Thursday.

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Two people have been taken to hospital in Edinburgh after a chemical spill on board a ship at Leith Docks.

The incident happened at about 0900 GMT on a vessel berthed at the Cemex plant within the dock complex.

Lothian and Borders Fire Service said the spill had been contained on board the ship and there was no danger to the wider public.

The two crewmen, both foreign nationals, were believed to have inhaled fumes from the spill.

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Train operator First ScotRail has submitted plans to build a wind turbine at Leuchars station in Fife.

It would supply all the electricity needs for the station and surplus power would be sent to the national grid.

The firm has lodged a planning application for the 6kw turbine, which it said was part of its strategy to reduce its carbon footprint.

Transport Scotland has funded the �29,000 scheme, which may be rolled out at other stations if successful.

The planning application submitted to Fife Council states that the turbine would be mounted on a 15m mast at the end of the station platform.

The company’s model for Leuchars is described as “the most robust small-scale wind turbine in the world”.

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Recent analysis of 4,000-year-old pots recovered during an excavation of two graves at Upper Largie, near Kilmartin in Argyll and Bute, has provided exciting evidence linking prehistoric Scotland with the Netherlands.

Analysis of the pots by Alison Sheridan, of National Museums Scotland, has revealed early international-style Beakers of the type found around the lower Rhine, which is the modern-day Netherlands and a strange hybrid of styles that suggest Irish and Yorkshire influences.

�These finds are very rare,� said Martin Cook, the AOC Archaeology Project Officer, who oversaw the excavations in 2005. �I think there are three or four other examples that early in Scotland. We initially didn�t realise how unusual they were, as it is so unusual to find three beaker ceramic vessels in the same feature.�

�The actual structure was very unusual, there�s only been one other grave excavated like that in Scotland � you just don�t get features like that generally.�

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DES BROWNE, the Scottish and defence secretary, was under pressure this weekend to sack one of his top aides for describing Scotland as a �narrow, Presbyterian and racist� country. John McTernan, a special adviser to Browne and former Downing Street aide to Tony Blair, made the comments in a personal e-mail to a Labour politician.

The document was obtained by The Sunday Times under freedom of information legislation. McTernan, who was among those cleared of wrongdoing in the cash for honours affair, wrote to Karen Gillon, a Labour member of the Scottish parliament, before a visit to Sweden: �If you�ve not been to Sweden before, I think you�ll really like it � it�s the country Scotland would be if it wasn�t narrow, Presbyterian, racist etc. etc. Social democracy in action.�

Alex Salmond, the Scottish first minister, said last night that the remarks showed Labour’s true �contempt� for the Scottish people, and questioned why McTernan should keep his publicly funded �99,000-a-year job.

The e-mail was written while McTernan was working as a policy adviser at the Scottish Arts Council in late 2002. Before that he worked as a special adviser to Henry McLeish, the former Labour first minister who was forced to stand down after a scandal involving his office expenses.

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Police are hunting a man who attempted to abduct a teenage girl as she walked home in Glasgow.

The 13-year-old girl was approached at about 1830 GMT on Friday in the Govan area of Glasgow.

A man in a small, dark coloured car rolled down the window and grabbed her arm as she walked on Summertown Road.

The teenager managed to break free and ran to safety. She was unhurt but Strathclyde Police said she was left badly shaken by the ordeal.

The suspect was described as being Afro-Caribbean, in his 30s, with a shaved head. He was wearing dark clothing.

Source

[This wil just allow thousands more to swamp Scotland-ed]

A major survey into the demand for a new direct air service linking Aberdeen and Poland is drawing to a close - and has attracted thousands of responses.

The BBC Scotland news website revealed the research last month.

More than 2,500 people have so far responded online and also via paper copies of the survey.

The survey at www.szkocja24.com and the English version of the site www.polesinscotland.com closes on Saturday.

An estimated 25,000 Poles live in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.

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A day of action by farmers and hauliers is set to take place on Saturday in protest at the rising cost of fuel.

The Road Haulage Association said a convoy of 30 lorries and heavy goods vehicles would make its way from Hamilton to Stirling along major roads.

A group calling itself Transaction2007 has also said it would stage a protest at the Grangemouth refinery.

The action comes as prices on the forecourt passed the �1 a litre mark in recent weeks.

Truckers are calling for the Westminster government to introduce a fuel price regulator, which would freeze fuel duty while the price of oil remains volatile.

They are also unhappy about a 2p government increase in fuel duty introduced in October.

Philip Flanders, of the Road Haulage Association, said the convoy would begin in Hamilton Services at 1000 GMT, moving eastwards towards Stirling along the M74, the M8, then M9.

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THE businessman at the centre of the Scottish Labour donations crisis today accused Wendy Alexander’s team of “gross mismanagement.”

Paul Green insisted he had regarded his donation of �950 as “above board” after assurances from Labour MSP Charlie Gordon.

He also said his donation was written on a personal cheque from his Jersey address.

In an interview on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, the businessman said he was “angry” at being dragged into the row and denied he had been trying to buy political influence.

Mr Green said: “How the Labour party managed to get themselves in this mess is something I find difficult to understand.

“I think what you have to say is that this has to be gross mismanagement.

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[They send a lot of their money home, so how is this benefitting Scotland?-ed]

MIGRANT workers are here for one main reason - money.

They can earn several times the wages doing menial jobs, rather than stay at home doing much more skilled work.

Often, they are vastly overqualified for the jobs they do.

And many have two and, sometimes, three jobs.

Despite scaremongers, they have little impact on the benefits system, with few becoming a burden on the state.

On the contrary, the overwhelming majority make a big contribution to the economy by paying taxes on the money they earn here.

Recent figures for 2005-06 illustrate the numbers of state benefits to be minuscule.

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ALMOST 150,000 migrants have come to Scotland in search of work over the last five years.

Huge numbers are coming from Eastern Europe, but we are still attracting thousands of people every year from countries including India and Pakistan.

And there are significant numbers of in comers from Australia, Ireland, America and New Zealand.

That’s good news, given expert advice that Scotland must look further afield than Eastern Europe to attract the 25,000 new faces we need every year.

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Glasgow has been chosen to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

There were celebrations in the Scottish city as the decision of the 71 voting nations was announced in Sri Lanka, with Glasgow winning by 47 votes to 24.

The city had been competing against Nigerian capital Abuja for the right to host the games.

Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond said: “We will make these games the greatest sporting event our country has ever seen.”

At a press conference after the announcement, Mr Salmond spoke of “jubilation” on the streets of Glasgow and across Scotland.

He added: “The schools across our country have been watching this and I think that it will be a moment of inspiration for that generation that looks forward to the 2014 Games.”

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Islamic footballers in the Scottish Premier League have had special prayer rooms set up for them at every stadium in the league.

All twelve clubs volunteered to set aside the rooms so two Moroccan players from Edinburgh team Hibernian can pray before and after games.

Players Merouane Zemmama and Abdessalam Benjelloun are pleased with the move.

Humza Yousaf, assistant to Scotland’s first Muslim MSP, Bashir Mann, said: “This is a very positive step.

“It is great that all the SPL clubs are recognising that modern Scotland is a multifaith, multi-cultural nation.”

Despite the lies peddled by multiculti propagandists Scotland remains thankfully largely mono-cultural and mono-ethnic. According to (2003) government figures there are just an estimated 42,000 Muslims in Scotland, less than 0.9% of the population of 5m, with Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jews making up less than 26,000 of the total population exposing the falsehood that Scotland is �multicultural�.

Islam teaches that all adult Muslims should pray five times every day. The rule is considered so important that very few exceptions are made.

As well as setting up a prayer room at Easter Road, Hibs took special steps to look after Zemmama and Benjelloun during the recent Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Muslims are not allowed to eat and drink in daylight hours during Ramadan so manager John Collins arranged late training sessions for his Moroccan stars.

Zemmama said: “The manager [John Collins] was fantastic throughout Ramadan. “He understands how important our religion is to us.

“The whole club was very respectful - manager, team-mates and fans.

“John trained with us, just the three of us. We can’t eat or drink during daylight hours so it was best for our bodies to start training at about 5pm and then eat straight after.�

Enforced dhimmitude for us all looks a step closer with every concession, every official act of appeasement revealing the ostrich-in-the sand gullibility of our rulers, our opinion formers and our bosses.

Source

Worshippers at an Edinburgh mosque have refuted suggestions it is promoting extremism after a study claimed to have found “hate literature” there.

Researchers claimed to have found a booklet which indicated it was permissible to kill lapsed Muslims.

The material was said to be found at the Islamic Centre of Edinburgh, which is attached to the King Fahd Mosque.

A mosque source told the BBC the booklet had been sent to the mosque 10 years ago but had not been used since.

The details emerged in a UK survey by the think tank Policy Exchange.

The findings form part of a report entitled The Hijacking of British Islam. The mosque has not yet issued an official comment.

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Fifteen asylum seekers have taken up the chance to go to university following a controversial decision by the Scottish government to wave their tuition fees.

It was feared that young refugees, who are not allowed to work and who get an allowance of just �30 a week, were being deprived of the chance of further education despite many overcoming the language barrier to outperform Scots pupils in exams.

There are currently about 1,400 asylum families in Scotland, mostly in Glasgow. Young people of university age are classed as overseas students until the status of their families is decided, which can take years. Universities Scotland calculated that waiving fees for those who had been at school in Scotland for at least three years would benefit only a small number, but said that it was a policy worth pursuing.

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Almost two thirds of inmates re-offend within two years of their release from prison, according to latest figures.

Statistics published by the Scottish Government showed the reconviction rate was almost as high for those who had been sentenced to probation.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill described the figures as unacceptable.

He said there were also too many people re-offending after receiving community sentences - even though that figure had fallen over the last decade.

The statistics, compiled by Scotland’s chief statistician, examined reconviction rates in 2003/04.

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