The Scotsman back issues from February 2002:
Tokyo traders follow New York's example
Feb 01, 2002 ... ASIAN stocks ended mostly higher following overnight rallies onWall Street, although Hong Kong bucked the trend and closed lower. TOKYO: Investors took cues from their counterparts in New York,lifting the shares of banks and technology heavyweights Sony and NTT. The benchmark ...
As I see it Breaking the tradition of late payment of bills
Feb 01, 2002; ... We all suffer when payments are delayed, and it is time thatculture was squashed ASMALL business owner recently got in touch with me to complainabout the decision by a major company to extend their payment periodfrom 30 to 60 days. I have just written to that company to ...
Asthma risk from playing outside
Feb 01, 2002; ... CHILDREN who play outdoor sports in smog-ridden cities can tripletheir risk of developing asthma. The discovery follows a study of 3,500 children aged nine to 16 inCalifornia who had no history of asthma. Over a period of five years,youngsters who played outdoor sports in areas ...
Research call after rise in birth defects
Feb 01, 2002; ... THE PROPORTION of babies born with birth defects in Scotland is onthe rise, according to a report published yesterday, triggeringwarnings that environmental hazards may be damaging children in thewomb. Experts believe further detailed investigations are essential todetermine why ...
Betting on a great comeback
Feb 01, 2002; ... T he bitch is back. Seven years after she packed her leopardskinhold-all and bid a teary adieu to Weatherfield, Bet Lynch is beingdrafted back into the embattled frontline of Coronation Street. Thereasoning is blatant. Indeed, the show's producers - a notoriouslytight-lipped species - ...
Business Comment British ideas don't always travel well
Feb 01, 2002 ... RETAILERS looking to plant the Union Jack in foreign parts need tobe sure their offering will be acceptable in the new culture. Boots is an integral part of UK life, having made its name as achemist and then as a health and beauty chain. But it does notlogically follow that the ...
Afghans promised aid, but no more troops
Feb 01, 2002; ... TONY Blair turned down a request for more British troops forAfghanistan yesterday as fierce fighting in a city south of Kabulthreatened the new regime of the country's interim leader, HamidKarzai. Meeting Mr Karzai in London, the Prime Minister assured him ofBritain's continued ...
ScottishPower focuses on trimming debt pile
Feb 01, 2002; ... SCOTTISHPOWER has put its acquisition ambitions on the backburnerto focus on sorting out its existing US and UK operations and cuttingits GBP 6.2 billion debt pile. Chief executive Ian Russell, unveiling a recovery in profits inthe third quarter of its financial year following a ...
Clipper
Feb 01, 2002 ... Peso in trouble amid flotation fears ARGENTINA'S peso took another hammering yesterday, driven by fearsthe government might soon completely float the recently devaluedcurrency, which could unleash runaway inflation amid what has becomea crippling financial crisis for the country ....
City council approves 1.9 per cent tax rise
Feb 01, 2002; ... SCOTLAND'S largest local authority yesterday voted to increase itscouncil tax by 1.9 per cent. Glasgow City Council also commended its GBP 1.2 billion spendingplans with commitments to key priorities in education and socialwork. However, city treasurer Craig Roberton ...
Music for musos to Crowe about
Feb 01, 2002; ... LAST Friday saw the release of Vanilla Sky, the new film byCameron Crowe. In his previous life, in the early 1970s, the directorwas a teen prodigy music journalist. And it shows - his second film,Singles, was set in Seattle when the city was the epicentre of theglobal grunge-quake ....
Stats help boost dollar
Feb 01, 2002 ... THE dollar firmed and pushed to session highs against the yenyesterday while holding steady against the euro, as the view the USeconomy is recovering from recession continued to gain steam. Rising US weekly jobless claims reported last week were offset bya drop in the four-week ...
Damilola mother's anguish at video
Feb 01, 2002; ... THE mother of murdered schoolboy Damilola Taylor fled a courtroomin tears yesterday as a jury was shown CCTV footage of the lastmoments of her son's life. Gloria Taylor broke down as the Old Bailey watched film of theyoungster smiling and playing with friends at a library ....
Brother and sister perish in car blaze
Feb 01, 2002; ... TWO children were burned to death last night when the car in whichthey had been left alone was engulfed in a fireball. The bodies of the brother and sister, aged two and three, weredragged from the family's blazing Ford Sierra by their horrifiedparents. Last night, ...
Scottish house prices rise by 'robust' 0.2 per cent
Feb 01, 2002; ... HOUSE prices in Scotland rose by 0.2 per cent in January, in linewith a UK-wide increase, according to the latest figures published bythe Nationwide Building Society. Alex Bannister, the group's chief economist, said that whileScottish house price inflation still lagged behind the ...
'Open sky' agreements banned by European court ruling
Feb 01, 2002; ... BELEAGUERED European airlines, still reeling from the impact of 11September, faced additional turmoil yesterday, after a ruling by theEuropean Court of Justice paved the way for the acceleratedderegulation of the industry. The preliminary ruling, by the advocate general of the ...
Europe rises on Fed's soothing
Feb 01, 2002 ... BALM from the Fed soothed frayed investor nerves, sending Europeanbourses higher on the back of gains in economy-sensitive paperstocks, with technology shares also strong as the sector bouncedback. Telecom equipment makers pushed ahead after Alcatel forecast abrighter 2002 ....
Father's heartbreak at losing his 'best friend'
Feb 01, 2002; ... THE father of a waitress killed by falling masonry fought backtears yesterday as he told of the heartbreak of losing his "bestfriend". Michael Foster, 59, said life would never again be the samefollowing the death of his 26-year-old daughter, Christine. The Australian ...
Rising incomes hide deeper crisis
Feb 01, 2002; ... TOTAL income from the Scottish national farm last year rose by 11per cent from a pitifully low base to GBP 273 million, still bumpingalong at barely one quarter of its 1995 peak. Average net farm income, for the farming year 2000/01, wasestimated at GBP 5,757, more than double the ...
Strategy group unveiled
Feb 01, 2002; ... THE group with the job of making the Scottish executive's forwardstrategy for Scottish farming work was announced this week. Ross Finnie, the minister for environment and rural development,said that the new agriculture strategy implementation group wouldmeet regularly for the next ...
Top of the pops ruined my career
Feb 01, 2002; ... He had three simultaneous top ten hits, Popentertainment.comcalled him "the greatest voice of 1970s pop" and he was banned by theBBC for being too successful. Yet you have probably never heard ofhim. Tony Burrows toured with the Beatles and recorded with CliffRichard, Tom Jones, Rod ...
Reviews New Releases
Feb 01, 2002; ... ROCK & POP Bis: Return To Central Drowning Pool: Sinner TheElectric Soft Parade: Holes In The Wall Peeps Into Fairyland:Happiness Haven: Between the Senses Artful GBP 13.99 inc P&P ALTHOUGH Bis have barely registered commercially in the UK,they're big in Japan, having ...
Reviews Unplugged soul from Scott's boys
Feb 01, 2002; ... The Waterboys Norman MacLean Glasgow Royal Concert Hall THERE was a mood of anticipation in the packed Concert Hall onWednesday, but those expecting a repeat of last November's rock-along set at Barrowland were disappointed, because the versatileWaterboys - Mike Scott, ...
Back where it all began
Feb 01, 2002; ... In the summer of 1963, four young Irish folk musicians - RonnieDrew, Luke Kelly, Barney McKenna and Ciarn Bourke - travelled toEdinburgh to sample the sights and, in particular, the sounds of theFestival. They played a few unofficial gigs, caused a bit of a stirand ended up signing a ...
Fire stations face axe over pensions cash
Feb 01, 2002; ... FIRE stations across Lothian and Borders have been threatened withclosure because of a "pensions time-bomb" within the service. The cost of paying the pensions of retired firefighters willdouble this year to GBP 2.6 million, placing the brigade in afinancial crisis ....
Bus company fined for sharing routes
Feb 01, 2002; ... THE bus company FirstGroup, which is under investigation by theOffice of Fair Trading for anti-competitive practices in Edinburgh,has been fined more than half a million pounds for competitioninfringements in Yorkshire. FirstGroup and a rival bus firm, Arriva, were found guilty by ...
Tests Focus on Ford's reliability
Feb 01, 2002 ... FORD builds the most reliable car in the world now, according tothe independent German TV organisation, which has analysed 1.5million cars tested under the equivalent of the British MoT. It compared 107 different models from all car-makers representedin the German car market and ...
Friends sees fall in new business
Feb 01, 2002; ... LIFE insurer Friends Provident saw new business sales dive 2.5 percent last year, to GBP 343.1 million, but posted strong fourth-quarter figures. The group, which de-mutualised last July, blamed uncertaintysurrounding its listing for slow growth during the first part of2001 ....
The sins of my mother
Feb 01, 2002; ... Wendy loved John Steed; tall, elegant, always with a kindly smile,which she felt he kept for her alone, a fat, insecure child in needof love who had been taking prescription slimming pills for a year tocontrol her weight. Wendy was 12. She loved TV's Avengers. Her mum's coolness ...
Name game is the Pitts
Feb 01, 2002; ... Hollywood gestures of lurve and romance always fill me withforeboding. The bigger and more extravagant the proclamation ofundying love, the heartier my chuckle. So I allowed myself a double-width smirk at the news that Jennifer Aniston has had 250 businesscards printed with her married ...
One in seven loaves contains GM products
Feb 01, 2002; ... ONE loaf of bread out of every seven contains genetically modifiedsoya, according to a government survey published today. The Food Standards Agency found traces of GM ingredients in 31items out of of 203 loaves, cakes, pastries, pies and baps taken fromsupermarket bakeries. Of the ...
Hamiltons ready to face accuser
Feb 01, 2002; ... NEIL and Christine Hamilton last night said they were prepared togive evidence against a woman who allegedly made false rape claimsagainst them. Nadine Milroy-Sloan, 28, was being questioned by police over theclaims. After emerging from giving a two-hour lecture to Oxford ...
Huge increase in elderly will stretch health service to breaking point
Feb 01, 2002; ... THE NHS could be stretched to crisis point by a huge increase inthe number of elderly people predicted over the next 30 years, it wasdisclosed yesterday. Hugh Henry, the deputy health minister, published a report showingthat the number of people living beyond 65 will increase by ...
Boots moves to curb its Asian losses
Feb 01, 2002; ... BOOTS, the high street health and beauty giant, is to close 19stores in Asia as losses mount and it searches for a new model forinternational expansion. Boots will close 15 of its 67 stores in Thailand and a furtherfour in Taiwan, opting instead to set up "implant" operations ...
Joker sells his strange pack to the voters
Feb 01, 2002; ... IAIN Duncan Smith is sitting in the wood-pannelled rooms allocatedto the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons. Behind oneof the cupboard doors is a relic from one of the former occupiers,Tony Blair. It is a full-length mirror. The Tory leader's aides were keen to ...
At the cutting edge of leadership style
Feb 01, 2002; ... Standing side by side at 10 Downing Street yesterday, Tony Blairand Afghan leader Hamid Karzai looked every inch political equals.But in the fashion stakes, Blair has found it harder to keep up withhis ally, who was called "the chicest man on the planet" by thedesigner Tom Ford. Blair is ...
Kelvingrove wins Lottery backing
Feb 01, 2002; ... TO APPLAUSE from delighted museum staff, the GBP 25 millionproject to revitalise Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museumrumbled forward yesterday, when the Heritage Lottery Fund announcedit would meet half the project costs. Though sponsorship funds and the level of EU ...
Leader Duncan Smith points the way on 'free' care
Feb 01, 2002 ... THERE is no such thing as "free" state provision, even theprovision of long-term care for the elderly. It is on this direct andprofound misunderstanding that both the Scottish executive and theScottish Conservatives find themselves most uncomfortably impaled.Both committed themselves to ...
Leader Opening up the post
Feb 01, 2002 ... IT WAS for reasons of public concern for the survival of universaldelivery and the "village post office" that Britain's postal servicewas not privatised with telecommunications, electricity and gas inthe great reforming sweep of the Eighties. That deep opposition to the opening of ...
Leader Joining the Million Club
Feb 01, 2002 ... BOTHERED by the economic downturn? We should not so easily despairat the lottery that is life. The number of millionaires in the UKwill for the first time exceed 100,000 within the next four years.Ten years ago, there were just 6,600. True, the number ofmillionaires fell slightly over ...
Legal Post bid to win share of Consignia's mail business
Feb 01, 2002; ... FIFE-based mail company Legal Post is to meet postal regulatorPostcomm in an attempt to win a chunk of the lucrative business setto be exposed by the current shake up of Consignia. Legal Post will ask for further details on the proposals,announced yesterday, to end Consignia's ...
Lockerbie court hears break-in evidence
Feb 01, 2002 ... THE bomb which caused the Lockerbie air disaster could have beensmuggled on to Pan Am flight 103 by a break-in at Heathrow airport,appeal judges were told yesterday. William Taylor QC said fresh evidence, which was not heard at thetrial of convicted bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed ...
Footsie rallies on US Fed rate freeze
Feb 01, 2002; ... THE US Federal Reserve decision to leave interest rates unchanged,and the implied confidence in an economic recovery, helped UK sharesup yesterday. The FTSE 100 index closed 75.5 points, or 1.5 per cent, higher at5,164.8, bouncing from the previous day's six-week closing low ....
Ex-detective sues police over arrest treatment
Feb 01, 2002; ... A FORMER detective is claiming pounds 100,000 damages over her"humiliating" treatment by colleagues when she was arrested on aperjury charge. Shirley McKie, 38, whose subsequent acquittal by a High Court juryled to a radical overhaul of Scotland's fingerprints bureau, allegesshe ...
Soft-top, harder choices for discerning fans of the MG
Feb 01, 2002; ... CONSIDERING it was cobbled together out of the front ends of twoMini Metros welded back to back and all but ignored during the BMWyears when the German company preferred to push its own Z3, the MGFdid all right for itself. It might not have been the most aggressive two-seater ...
100,000 will say thanks a million
Feb 01, 2002; ... THE number of millionaires in Britain will, for the first time,exceed 100,000 within the next four years, according to a new reportwhich singles out the Muslim community and the elderly as the sectorsmost likely to deliver the new rich. As recently as 1992, there were just 6,600 ...
Nasdaq report
Feb 01, 2002 ... THE technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index headed up almost 21points, or 1.08 per cent, to 1,934.10. Tech heavyweights Oracle and Intel underpinned the market afterbeing upgraded by a number of brokerage houses. Oracle rose 64 centsto $17.26. Intel, the world's No 1 maker of ...
Scottish economy maintains uplift
Feb 01, 2002; ... SCOTTISH business activity increased again last month according tothe latest snapshot of the economy from the Bank of Scotland. The bank's latest report on the Scottish economy showed a markedimprovement in business conditions north of the Border duringJanuary, as both output and ...
Oilmen's concern over emergency helicopters
Feb 01, 2002; ... OIL workers have called for the replacement of rig-basedhelicopters after a series of emergency alerts. The Super Pumas, which are the first point of escape fromplatforms in the North Sea, are now approaching 20 years of age.There are fears that six incidents in the past four ...
Consolidation after fall
Feb 01, 2002 ... OIL prices consolidated yesterday after sinking a day earlier,when reports of rising US inventories renewed worries about slackdemand. Benchmark Brent crude oil futures picked up 13 cents to US$18.92 abarrel with more buyers emerging, after closing 45 cents weaker onWednesday ....
North Berwick to get new trains, 10 years late
Feb 01, 2002; ... UNRELIABLE old trains which have become the scourge of thousandsof Lothian commuters were today heading for the scrapyard. The 40-year-old electric units - the last slam door trains inScotland - were first pressed into service as a temporary measure onthe North Berwick to ...
Pavement falls cost 200m pounds a year
Feb 01, 2002; ... COMPENSATION claims from pedestrians who say they have trippedover on pavements are costing council taxpayers more than GBP 200million a year. The growth of a "blame-and-claim culture", fuelled by no-win-no-fee law firms, has seen a large increase in the number of legalactions ...
Committee calls for removal of absent MSP
Feb 01, 2002; ... POLITICIANS on Holyrood's powerful enterprise and lifelonglearning committee have called for the removal of a leading SNP MSP,amid claims that his attendance record is particularly poor. Kenny MacAskill has been criticised by eight Labour, LiberalDemocrat and Conservative MSPs who ...
Young offenders get chance to apologise
Feb 01, 2002; ... TEENAGE criminals are to be given the chance to apologise to theirvictims, rather than face a children's panel. The proposals by the Scottish executive would give victims thechance to spell out to the young criminals how their lives have beendistressed by their behaviour ....
Tory becomes first to declare masonic links
Feb 01, 2002; ... A CONSERVATIVE MSP has become Scotland's first politician toofficially declare his links to the freemasons. Keith Harding used the register of members' interests to publiclydeclare his affiliation and urged other politicians to follow hislead. The list MSP for mid-Scotland ...
Galloway threat to quit Labour
Feb 01, 2002; ... MAVERICK MP George Galloway threatened to "do a Canavan" yesterdayand quit Labour to fight the next election as an independent, if heis not selected as an official candidate. He sent a coded warning to party chiefs not to use the eagerlyanticipated publication of a report into the ...
Report shreds transport policy
Feb 01, 2002; ... LABOUR must invest billions more in Britain's ailing rail network,a Commons committee claimed yesterday in a report that effectivelytore to shreds the government's transport policy. In a series of damning conclusions, the Transport Select Committeepainted a bleak picture of a rail ...
Competition will put rural post service at risk
Feb 01, 2002; ... POSTAL deliveries to remote parts of the country could be scrappedor subjected to charges of up to GBP 16 a time if the governmentpresses ahead with plans to open up the industry to full competition,the postal group Consignia warned yesterday. The company, which is pressing ahead ...
Cash stolen during prison break-in
Feb 01, 2002; ... PRISON officials and police started an investigation last nightafter a break-in at a jail. It was reported inmates' cash and staff mobiles were taken. The raid happened in the early hours of yesterday at Ford openprison in Sussex, the Prison Service said. A spokeswoman said: ...
Standing orders in the seat of power? Let me lie down
Feb 01, 2002; ... HAD I been wearing pants yesterday, I would have wet them withexcitement. Yes, the fluffy parliament was discussing ... (lettrumpets blast and drum-rolls thunder) "Changes to standing orders."Be still, my beating heart. I remember the last time they discussed this, an elderly man ...
Changes see more tuning in to Radio 4
Feb 01, 2002; ... BBC RADIO 4 has completed a reversal of its once-ailing fortunesto land its highest audience for a decade, figures showed yesterday. Its agenda-setting morning programme Today was among the chiefwinners as quarterly audience figures were unveiled, together withcomedy shows and ...
Theatre group to fold due to lack of funding
Feb 01, 2002; ... RAINDOG Theatre, part of a performing arts group founded by theactor Robert Carlyle, is to close after failing to secure fundingfrom the Scottish Arts Council. The theatre forms half of a group which includes RaindogTelevision, which made Tinsel Town, BBC2's recent drama series ...
Ryanair's new Oslo link
Feb 01, 2002; ... NO-FRILLS airline Ryanair unveiled a new link from Prestwick toOslo yesterday as it launched 11 new services across its rapidly-expanding network. The Dublin-based carrier, which ordered 150 new planes from Boeinglast week, expects over 40,000 people to fly on the new route in ...
Satanist killers jailed for 28 years
Feb 01, 2002; ... A PAIR of self-styled devil worshippers who said they learnedtheir vampirism on trips to Scotland and London were jailed for atotal of 28 years yesterday after committing a murder which theyclaimed the devil ordered them to carry out. It was the conclusion of a month-long trial ...
Teachers demand guards on school gates
Feb 01, 2002; ... TEACHERS have demanded security guards are called in to protectpupils from violent gangs in an Edinburgh suburb. A series of attacks on pupils in Currie High School and itsgrounds has led education leaders to seriously consider postingguards on the gates. The problem has ...