A trickle of passengers arrived at airports in Scotland today for the first flights after the skies above parts of the UK cleared of volcanic ash.

RAF jets have been scrambled 20 times in the last year to intercept Russian aircraft over British airspace, it was revealed today.

US property tycoon Donald Trump said yesterday that Scotland would be sending out a disastrous message about investing there if his plans to build a golf resort are crushed.

Supermarket giant Tesco has taken a step closer to complete retail conquest of the country after buying stores on several remote Scottish isles.

Maurice Healy, the Cork businessman who founded IT group Calyx, has led a management buyout of the company in a deal worth stg£70.2m, or €103.8m.

Two men were killed and another seriously injured today after being hit by a wave on an oil tanker.

A court in Pakistan today ordered the father of a British girl at the centre of a custody battle to surrender her passport.

The Scottish-Pakistani girl at the centre of a custody battle told a court today that she wanted to remain in Pakistan with her father, their lawyer said.

A 12-YEAR-OLD girl taken to Pakistan by her father without her mother’s knowledge said yesterday that she went of her own free will.

The parents of a 12-year-old British girl at the centre of an abduction row were today on course for a legal battle after she revealed she had gone to Pakistan voluntarily.

THE mother of a 12-year-old girl suspected to have been abducted by her father to Pakistan yesterday made an emotional plea for her daughter to be returned home.

A huge operation involving British and American aeroplanes was launched today to try to rescue the crew of a stricken yacht.

A tiny Scottish community radio station was today expected to claim a world exclusive when it gives the first radio play to a Frank Sinatra record which is never expected to be released.

The last man rescued from the stricken trawler Hansa held on to his brother-in-law for 12 hours but lost him five minutes before help arrived.

Rescued crewmen of a fishing trawler which sank off the coast of Donegal were today preparing to fly home as an inquiry was launched into the tragedy which killed six of their colleagues.

Seven people are feared dead after a trawler sank off the Donegal coast.