Alex Salmond was last night fending off political attacks over his personal intervention to help a party donor win planning approval for an £80 million development in Aviemore.

First Minister Alex Salmond was last night urged by a special meeting of councillors to make a last-ditch intervention in the decision to "reject" Europe's biggest wind farm.

The Scottish government will face a key test of its environmental commitment this week when it launches a public consultation on plans to cut Scotland's climate pollution by 80% by 2050.

 A Scottish local authority has been accused of trying to bulldoze through plans for more than 30,000 new houses that would increase pollution, wreck the countryside and damage democracy.

A new strategy to fight fraud in the NHS will be unveiled tomorrow amid fears that it is costing the health service up to £100 million every year.

No more high-profile Labour politicians will have to resign over the current donations row, Scottish secretary Des Browne has claimed.

Mental health services in Scotland are to be compared by using new benchmarking standards in the first scheme of its kind in Europe.

The campaign to bring the Lewis chessmen back to Scotland went to London yesterday as culture minister Linda Fabiani demanded their return on a visit to the British Museum.

Scots GPs working in deprived areas are earning less than colleagues in well-off parts of the country, and their patients get a poorer service. GPs' representatives now warn that it is increasingly unattractive for family doctors to practice in such areas.