The SNP's flagship plan to scrap council tax has been wrecked by the UK Government after ministers categorically ruled out helping to fund the radical reform.

The flagship policy of free personal care for the elderly will be drastically cut because of a cash crisis in town halls across Scotland, leaked council documents have revealed.

An SNP minister was at the centre of a political storm last night after she claimed that her party "never said" it would write off student debt during last year's victorious election campaign.

After centuries of answering fiendishly difficult questions in longhand, a Scottish university has decided to break with tradition by letting students bring their laptops into the exam hall.

It is close to the site of one of Scotland's greatest battles but has led a largely peaceful existence in the 794 years since. But the Sauchieburn Estate just south of the Bannock Burn is now at the centre of a 21st-century conflict over access to land.

Alex Salmond is facing a second parliamentary inquiry into claims SNP ministers have interfered in Scotland's planning rules.