Labour's battle to win the Glasgow East by-election and save the premiership of Gordon Brown looked increasingly desperate after party chiefs were forced to parachute in a new big-hitting candidate.

Scottish Labour chiefs have openly accused BBC journalists of pro-SNP bias in a bitter attack on the corporation's political coverage north of the border.

Scores of desperately ill Scots have been denied organ transplants because of mistakes by medical staff and confusion over the law.

A gay asylum seeker has been refused permission to stay in Scotland and told he is likely to be safe in his homophobic homeland provided he behaves "discreetly".