The Scotsman back issues from April 1998:
Business View
Apr 01, 1998 ... FirstGroup moves up a gear to join international big league FIRSTGROUP has established itself as a major UK bus player,pushing through passenger volume increases in the domestic marketwith a mixture of user-friendly buses and efficient timetables. However, recently the ...
Chiroscience shares soar on Zeneca deal
Apr 01, 1998; ... SHARES in the biotechnology group Chiroscience rocketed 24 percent yesterday after it signed a deal with the pharmaceuticals giantZeneca, which will market its new local anaesthetic Chirocaine. The deal could net Chiroscience upwards of GBP 200 million inroyalties in the 15-year ...
Feed firm launches controls guideline
Apr 01, 1998; ... SALES of compound dairy feeds appear to have declined by about 10per cent in the last year, according to Iain Weir, the generalmanager in Scotland for BOCM Pauls. Speaking yesterday in Glasgow, Mr Weir made it clear that theeffects of BSE and falling milk prices were also being ...
Brave New World for FirstGroup
Apr 01, 1998; ... FIRSTGROUP, the Aberdeen-based transport giant with a 22 per centshare of the UK bus market, has beaten its Scottish rival Stagecoachto win a share in a major bus franchise covering 88 routes in HongKong. The joint venture between FirstGroup and Hong Kong-based ...
Computacenter confirms plans for 900m pound float
Apr 01, 1998; ... COMPUTACENTER, Britain's largest independent informationtechnology company, yesterday confirmed plans for a GBP 900 millionflotation, which will make its joint founders two of the UK'srichestmen. Peter Ogden and Philip Hulme, who founded the company in 1981 andeach will retain ...
Lenzie pupils risk all on tactics that could still backfire Global Investment Challenge
Apr 01, 1998; ... AFTER the strong gains notched up by portfolios in the previousupdate this week seemed quiet by comparison, with few big winnersandlosers. The best performer in the Global Investment Challenge, theinvestment game organised by The Scotsman and Merrill Lynchinvestment bank, is ...
Hepworth shake-up to bolster independence
Apr 01, 1998; ... HEPWORTH, the building materials group which is reputed to beunder takeover threat, has moved to convince shareholders that itshould continue as an independent company while it restructures thebusiness. The chief executive, Jean-Francois Chienne, confirmed that GBP68.9 million ...
Change of name for Highland Distilleries in marketing drive
Apr 01, 1998; ... HIGHLAND Distilleries plans to change its name of 111 years tomake it more user-friendly as part of a marketing drive for its mainbrands, Famous Grouse and The Macallan. Its new name, Highland Distillers, is not a radical departure butBrian Ivory, Highland's chairman, said that a ...
Lucas Varity in mood to buy
Apr 01, 1998; ... LUCASVARITY, the vehicle and aerospace components group, said itwas set for acquisitions of up to GBP 1 billion and unveiled a majordeal to supply General Motors with braking and other systems. The deal with GM is a global one to supply passenger cars nowunder development, ...
Inquiry hears claim of OP link to BSE
Apr 01, 1998; ... THE BSE Inquiry in London was yesterday presented with evidencebacking the claim that organophosphate pesticide (OP) usage may haveprovided a trigger for the spread of bovine spongiformencephalopathy(BSE), or mad cow disease. This theory, promoted by a number of people including ...
Midshires to offer RBoS payment
Apr 01, 1998; ... BIRMINGHAM Midshires is thought to be preparing to offer theRoyalBank of Scotland a payment of between GBP 2 million and GBP 5millionin return for the bank allowing talks with other bidders, butconditional on a deal being done with one of them. The move could break the deadlock ...
Morgan Grenfell backs 64m pound buy-in at FPT Group
Apr 01, 1998; ... THE Edinburgh office of Morgan Grenfell Development Capital(MGDC)has backed a GBP 64 million management buy-in at FPT Group, theindustrial component supplier. The division was acquired from Fenner, the Humberside-basedmanufacturer of power and distribution equipment, which ...
Oil production cuts 'not enough'
Apr 01, 1998; ... NORTH Sea oil prices fell yesterday amid fears that oil exportersmay not cut back enough production to remove the glut in supplies onthe world market. The main Brent blend of crude oil traded about 50 cents lower at$14.30 a barrel despite ratification overnight of a deal by ...
Danger money
Apr 01, 1998; ... ON the face of it, local councils, oil, yoghurt and coppercompanies have nothing in common but they do share one fate. Theyhave all been victims of the fast growing and dangerous world ofderivatives. From a standing start in the early Seventies complex financialinstruments, known ...
Energy firm writes off 10.6m pounds
Apr 01, 1998; ... SIX months after taking control of Pittencrieff Resources, a newmanagement team has taken a GBP 10.6 million writeoff on one of thecompany's main assets in an attempt to put the oil and gas businesson a sounder financial footing. The exceptional item is the main factor contributing ...
Pressac fails to impress despite 54 per cent rise
Apr 01, 1998; ... THE electronic controls group Pressac, which owns the McGaviganplant at Kirkintilloch, disappointed its more enthusiastic followersdespite news of sharply higher profits in its latest trading period. The company's shares, which had been enjoying a good run, tumbled31p to 299.5p on ...
Meat report findings likely to be unclear
Apr 01, 1998; ... LONDON Economics, the company commissioned by Tesco to report onprofits in all sectors of the beef industry, is not expected torelease its conclusions until late May or June. There is a suspicion that it will be unable to come up with clearfindings because the true value of beef to ...
MP protests as Borders hospital sells housing
Apr 01, 1998; ... A GBP 2 MILLION property deal involving the sale of 52 Bordershospital residencies to a housing association was attacked lastnightby an MP who condemned the move as a desperate measure to plug thegap in local NHS finances. Borders General Hospital yesterday became the first NHS ...
'Neighbours from hell' crackdown criticised
Apr 01, 1998; ... A COUNCIL is to inform people on its house waiting list that theywill not be able to become tenants if they are "likely" to causedamage to property or cause distress to neighbours. The controversial policy has been criticised by the housingcampaign group, Shelter, which says it is ...
University guarantees places for housing scheme pupils
Apr 01, 1998; ... SCHOOLCHILDREN as young as 12 from a city's deprived housingschemes are to be guaranteed university places in what is believedtobe the first project of its kind in the UK. Pupils, parents, schools and the University of Abertay in Dundeewill sign an agreement guaranteeing a place ...
Glasgow pubs face bottle ban
Apr 01, 1998; ... GLASGOW City Council is considering introducing a ban on drinkingfrom beer bottles in all pubs and clubs in the city. The move is aimed at cutting down on violence - but could alsodeal a blow to the city's "cool" image. Since the late 1980s it hasbeen de rigueur to sip from a ...
The power of our rich kids
Apr 01, 1998; ... KIDS. Don't you just love 'em? These days, kids are vocal,highly selective and extremely brand literate - even if increasinglyeducationally illiterate. When it comes to understanding the role ofmarketing, differentiating between brands and discerning justexactlywhat advertisers are ...
All systems go as Barclays shares in Railtrack flotation
Apr 01, 1998 ... AS ONE of the UK's most prestigious companies with the largestshare of the retail stockbroking market, Barclays Stockbrokers Ltd(BSL) regularly acts as a Share Shop for major share issues. When the Government decided to float Railtrack, Barclays took theopportunity to develop a ...
EU turns clock back to beat 2000 bug
Apr 01, 1998; ... THE European Union is developing contingency plans to countertheinformation technology crisis brought on by the millennium bug andthe introduction of the single currency. Brussels officials aresaying that critical systems will not be ready for the date changeatmidnight on 31 ...
Norweb signs data joint venture
Apr 01, 1998 ... TWO companies that this year unveiled technology to deliver fastdata transfer along ordinary power lines have created a jointventureto market it worldwide. Nortel, the Canadian telecoms and services company, is joiningwith Norweb, a subsidiary of United Utilities, to create ...
Netpreneurs line up a new trade
Apr 01, 1998; ... COMPUTER trade shows exhibit a near obsessive passion for jargon.For those of us who are relative newcomers to the wonders of thewired box, the trade show seems almost designed to instil discomfortand send us shuffling off to the next stand. Online.scotland, the country's first ...
Telephony firms under threat
Apr 01, 1998; ... THE explosive growth of the Internet poses a life-or-deathchallenge to phone companies, according to a report published lastweek. The Cambridge-based consultancy Analysys says that only thosecompanies that embrace the Internet challenge will thrive. MargaretHopkins, the principal ...
Log on for home delivery
Apr 01, 1998; ... THE idea of buying food without setting foot in a shop is not anew one, nor is it particularly a child of the computer age. Ruralareas have long had food vans that sell anything from bread to baconand anyone aged over 60 will remember "the days when the local shopused to bring the ...
Sporty solution for all your telecoms needs
Apr 01, 1998; ... IT IS a year since the first high-speed modems began to appear inthe British market, a year in which early adopters have wonderedwhether they had bought the Betamax or VHS of the computer world.The problem has been two competing and incompatible standards of theso- called 56k ...
Windows 98: a vintage year or just a stop-gap?
Apr 01, 1998; ... AS MICROSOFT gears up for the long-awaited launch of Windows 98,it seems unlikely that it will trigger the same kind of excitementaswhen Windows 95 arrived on the market. Nevertheless, Windows 98might have an influence on a company's decision to upgrade its ITsystems. What new ...
Netting the unwary with practical pranks
Apr 01, 1998; ... AT FIRST glance it appears to be another wire-service news story,reposted on to the Web for all to see. If you're scan-reading it,the true impact of the words might not hit home. The article reads: In a joint press conference in St Peter's Square this morning,Microsoft and the ...
Adding a personal touch to the basics of word processing
Apr 01, 1998; ... WORD processing is the staple of personal computing. Unlikespreadsheets, games or the Internet, it is the one thing that we alluse our PCs for. Yet, for most of us, it is like an iceberg: we cansee a few features bobbing above the water, but we're aware thatthere must be a great deal ...
Scots line up against Microsoft
Apr 01, 1998 ... WIGWAM Digital, the Bellshill-based design company, ischallengingMicrosoft, which has a global staff of 25,183 in a prestigiouscontest. Wigwam's interactive CD-ROM documentary on the life and work ofthe Glasgow designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh has been nominated inthe British ...
Audi strikes while Avant is hot
Apr 01, 1998; ... AUDI remains something of a dark horse in the luxury car sector,its saloon car range is overshadowed by its BMW and Mercedes-Benzrivals and the Avant range of estate cars is still in the shade ofVolvo which, traditionally, has dominated the market for big estatecars. But with the ...
Budgets feel heat as Skoda revival sees prices soar
Apr 01, 1998; ... SCOTTISH motorists have been among the most loyal in Europe totheCzech car maker Skoda, even when the former Iron Curtain car makerwas widely regarded as a joke. Budget prices allied to the integrity of the rear-engined carsmade by skilled craftsmen working for one of the oldest ...
Former patient who killed woman in fire gets 10 years
Apr 01, 1998; ... A FORMER psychiatric patient who killed a young woman in a fireafter being released from hospital was jailed for ten yearsyesterday. Weeks after he was discharged back into the community, ColinCrabbstarted the fire at his home which claimed the life of AmandaDuncan,21, a ...
Tearful do-gooder out of step on TV's mean street
Apr 01, 1998; ... DEIRDRE RACHID has weathered more storms than yachtsman TonyBullimore. Married three times, widowed once and raped by astranger, she is a veritable magnet for misery. It is tempting to blame her. After all, aren't all soap operaqueens the authors of their own distress? But Deirdre, ...
Glimpse of leftovers from building blocks of planets
Apr 01, 1998; ... ASTRONOMERS have discovered two huge chunks of ice which may markthe very edge of our solar system. The lumps of primordial ice, which were once the potentialbuilding blocks of planets, are the faintest visible objects everglimpsed orbiting the sun. The National Astronomy ...
Scientists build face behind mask of a mummy
Apr 01, 1998; ... A BUCK-TOOTHED young man with a long thin nose and curly blackhair and beard will be revealed today as the face behind the mask ofan Egyptian who was mummified about 2,000 years ago. Experts using medical equipment have found that the faceunderneath the bandages bears a close ...
Harris to serve up all-weather action -with sheep, showers and stone shelter
Apr 01, 1998; ... WITH annual rainfall topping 1,000 millimetres and gale forcewinds, the question "Anyone for tennis?" is not something you wouldexpect to hear on Harris. But this week its inhabitants will see the completion of theirvery first all-weather tennis court, complete with a ...
Design king who built queens that ruled the waves
Apr 01, 1998; ... HE SITS today, a vibrant old man, wrapped in memories of a timewhen his drawing board was the centre of a world that is, sadly,gone. In a lifetime of work, Dr John Brown, 96, drew from his mind avision of grace and beauty that was transformed into the greatestships of the 20th ...
UN team urges inquiry into Loyalist murder of top lawyer
Apr 01, 1998; ... THE Government promised last night to assist any inquiry orderedby the United Nations after its investigators alleged that police inNorthern Ireland had threatened lawyers. The UN investigators will today deliver a damning report callingfor two independent inquiries: one into the ...
Concern as Sarwar bids to buy local newspaper
Apr 01, 1998; ... THE suspended Labour MP Mohammad Sarwar faced fresh controversylast night after he confirmed that he is a shareholder in a newcompany which has been set up to buy his local newspaper. In a GBP 10,000 deal, the Govan MP will become a shareholder inthe free-sheet which is distributed ...
Book's collusion claims could derail peace talks
Apr 01, 1998; ... BY MAY, Northern Ireland's peace process will have reached acrucial phase. Roberts Rinehart, an American publisher, could not have chosen amore timely date to publish some extraordinary allegations ofLoyalist and security force collusion in the murder both of knownRepublicans and ...
Jupiter's mushroom soup changes ideas
Apr 01, 1998; ... THE mysterious great red spot on Jupiter is again forcingscientists to rewrite their theories. They had thought the blemish, a hurricane three times bigger thanthe Earth, was evenly spread out, forming a kind of giant plug30,000miles across and 10,000 miles deep. Now, it ...
Last of the great transatlantic liners
Apr 01, 1998 ... QUEEN MARY: The most famous of all the transatlantic liners andinits day the largest ship on the ocean. It was launched on 26September, 1934, and sailed from Southampton on its maiden voyage on27 May, 1936. It took the Blue Riband - for the fastesttransatlantic crossing - on its sixth ...
Blair in soapy trouble for backing Deirdre
Apr 01, 1998; ... MPS ACCUSED Tony Blair of wasting his time dabbling in a "fantasyworld" yesterday after he voiced support for a jailed CoronationStreet character. The Prime Minister had added his backing to the campaign to freeDeirdre Rachid, who was seen by 19 million viewers on Sunday ...
Old sex habits die hard for New Men
Apr 01, 1998; ... BRITAIN'S bestselling men's magazine has sailed into unchartedterritory by commissioning its first national sex survey and theresults make depressing reading for every woman who has cited herpartner's sense of humour as his sexiest feature and insisted shefound his beer gut ...
Muddle over names 'led to delay in sea rescue'
Apr 01, 1998; ... CONFUSION over a vessel's distress signal delayed the search foramissing trawler, a skipper told the Westhaven inquiry yesterday. Danny Buchan, the master of a Fraserburgh-registered fishing boatwith the same name as the ill-fated Arbroath vessel, told AberdeenSheriff Court he ...
Prisons in new crisis as cells overflow
Apr 01, 1998; ... THE number of offenders behind bars in Scotland has reachedrecordlevels, prompting a fresh prisons overcrowding crisis for theGovernment. The rate of increase under Labour in the last three months ismorethan double that under the Conservatives' "tough on crime" policy inthe ...
Real cost of reactors could be much higher
Apr 01, 1998; ... THE latest GBP 355 million bill for clearing up at Dounreay isonly a small part of the total price that will have to be paid forBritain's great nuclear experiment in the north. Leaving aside the annual running costs of the various reactorsandprocessing plants at Dounreay over the ...
Brown rejects stop-go tactic to halt the rise of sterling
Apr 01, 1998; ... THE Chancellor yesterday flatly rejected demands that heinterveneto check Britain's soaring pound and prevent its relentless risetipping industry into recession. As sterling climbed to ten-year highs and industry demandedactionfrom the Bank of England, Gordon Brown denied to ...
Cardinal claims Scots should be given their say on abortion
Apr 01, 1998; ... THE leader of Scotland's 800,000 Roman Catholics last nightaccused the Government of casting doubt on the maturity of Scots tomake up their own minds on abortion law. As politicians in the Commons discussed amendments to theScotlandBill, Cardinal Thomas Winning led all seven ...
Peace camp braced for eviction showdown
Apr 01, 1998; ... FASLANE peace camp residents are bracing themselves for ashowdownwhich one eco-warrior warned would "make Manchester Airport seemlikea picnic". The campaigners have dug themselves in opposite the Royal NavyBase at Faslane ready to defy sheriff officers intent on ...
Fraudster stole funeral money from widow
Apr 01, 1998; ... A FRAUDSTER who stole the money a widow had saved to pay for herhusband's funeral escaped jail yesterday when sentence was deferred. Margaret Stewart, 46, was warned by Sheriff Kevin Drummond,however, that she may still face prison later. Stewart, 46, of Renfrew Street, ...
Man found with Ulster badges admits carrying ammunition
Apr 01, 1998; ... CRANE driver Eric Hamilton was caught red-handed the day policestopped a car he was in after a tip-off. Besides almost 100 rounds of live ammunition he had uniforms andbadges worn by the outlawed Irish organisation, the Red HandCommandos. Glasgow Sheriff Court heard yesterday ...
DNA tests led to dog cruelty conviction
Apr 01, 1998; ... A DOG owner who starved his pet was sent to a young offendersinstitution for three months yesterday after he was traced by animalwelfare workers using DNA tests. Shaheed Saleem, 19, turned up at court yesterday with his facehidden behind a black mask and a baseball cap pulled down ...
Initiative launched to keep troubled children close to home
Apr 01, 1998; ... SIX community projects are to be set up in Edinburgh to helpchildren suffering from emotional and behaviour problems who are indanger of being excluded from school. The move comes after pressure for residential school places hasforced Edinburgh City Council to send children as far ...
Villagers give thumbs down to the duke's egg farm plan
Apr 01, 1998; ... THE Duke of Buccleuch last night abandoned his plans to build a16,000-bird egg farm on the outskirts of a Borders conservationvillage - and accused the villagers of being NIMBYs. The duke, Scotland's biggest landowner, had held his ownreferendum on the issue and written to every ...
Chance to taste fruit of spice baron's triumphs
Apr 01, 1998; ... ROBERT Waugh's decision to leave his Borders joinery business andsail to the West Indies to plant exotic spice trees must have beenclassed as something of a gamble 220 years ago. But now everybody can enjoy the fruits of his success as themansion he built next to the Tweed with the ...
Microlight 'was not meant to fly'
Apr 01, 1998; ... A MICROLIGHT aircraft which took off from a children's recreationarea and crashed a few yards from a row of houses was never intendedto leave the ground, a jury heard yesterday. The trial of two men accused of causing the crash heard that whenpolice arrived at the accident in ...
It is time the tribulation was taken out of the trials doctors use for medical research Up Stethoscope
Apr 01, 1998; ... AN old oil painting by Dean Cornwell commemorates the most famousmosquito bite in history. It depicts a group of very pukka chaps inthe tropics in 1900. Gathered in a semi-circle, they wear pithhelmets, military uniforms and handlebar moustaches. In the centreof the group, one man sits ...
Rare bulletin from the acoustic front
Apr 01, 1998; ... THE traffic was dreadful in Glasgow, especially in the West Endwhere David Allison lives, a strangely obscure spot with Art Nouveautenements. I was ten minutes late for this spectacular guitaristand, incidentally, BBC reporter. Our photographer, Donald, was thereearly. I found him ...
Coltas Ceart: Not the cross in my loaf Gaelic Page
Apr 01, 1998; ... IN OUR journey through the Gaelic alphabet we are somewherearoundBH. This is usually described as sounding like V but it isremarkable how often it comes out in our names as F or PH. There isMacDuffie (MacDhuibh-Shithe), there is Elphin (Ailbhinn, "Rock-Peak")in Assynt, there is ...
Glasgow braced for a truly historic loss
Apr 01, 1998; ... IT'S the transfer coup of the season. It couldn't be worse if WimJansen quit Celtic Park and signed up to coach the Dons. Glasgow'sloss of an art gallery and parliament is bad enough, but the city isnow is letting one of its most dynamic academics escape to the ...