Alex Salmond’s dream of independence has been shattered after Scotland voted to stay part of the United Kingdom.

A rower attempting a solo fundraising voyage across the Atlantic has been rescued by the US coast guard after suffering a back injury.

Around a million Britons can claim direct descent from Vikings, according to a new DNA study.

British Prime Minister David Cameron wants the use of premium rate telephone helplines for flooding victims to be ended “as quickly as it possibly can be”, Downing Street has said.

Rescue teams are expected this morning to resume the search for two RAF airmen who went missing after two Tornado jets crashed off the north coast of Scotland, Britain's Ministry of Defence said.

WHILE agreeing with Maurice Fitzgerald's assertion that the TG4 debate was a ludicrous one give that only one of the contestants was proficient in the fluent use of Irish, his contention that the Irish language came to Ireland via Scotland is incorrect (Letter, October 25).

Damian Foxall is Ireland’s finest ocean racing sailor. He tells Dan Buckley about the thrills of his trips around the world.

THE BBC was forced to apologise after one of its weathermen was caught making a rude gesture live on air.

BRITISH Prime Minister David Cameron’s proposal to move British clocks forward by an hour all year round and thus match up with the near continent have been given short shrift by the Irish Government and experts.

Sweeping reforms to parliamentary constituencies in Britain will be introduced alongside moves to change the voting system, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced today.

Air passengers faced further misery tonight as the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud returned.

Homes in the country cost 15% more than properties in urban areas, pricing many first-time buyers out of the market, figures showed today.

Salmon withdrawn from sale in the UK amid contamination fears may have been tainted by diesel from a boat, the supplier said today.

THE huge basking shark is the latest creature to be seen moving northwards, another case of wildlife responding to climate changes.

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

Pakistani police told a court today that they did not intend to detain or deport a British girl in an international custody battle to the UK, a defence 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.

WHEN Transport Minister Martin Cullen publicly rebuked eircom chief executive Dr Phil Nolan for delays in the delivery of broadband communication, he was speaking up for rural Ireland.

Blizzards and severe gales were expected to sweep across Scotland tonight as yet another severe weather warning was issued.

Heart-throb George Clooney is coming to Scotland to film a Hollywood blockbuster, it was to be confirmed today.

Detectives searching for teenager Naomi Mills, who is thought to have run off with a 22-year-old policeman, were today investigating a number of possible sightings of the pair.

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.

The body of the remaining crewman from the sunken German trawler has been recovered and the search called off.

Five bodies have now been found by rescuers searching for the crew of a sunken fishing trawler in the Atlantic.

Rescuers searching for the crew of a sunken fishing trawler in the Atlantic have found a further two bodies.

Rescuers searching for seven crewmen missing in the north Atlantic have picked up a survivor who spent more than 12 hours in the icy water.