Suicide leap by lawyer accused of sex crimes

A lawyer who jumped to his death from the Erskine Bridge had been in court two days earlier, charged with sex offences against a girl

Captured sailors were late entry for regatta

Crew of seized yacht were on their way to Dubai after making a late decision to enter the annual coastal race to Oman

Police to use anti-terror tactics to catch rapists

Head of expanded rape squad says Met aims to 'up its game' by using covert surveillance and phone tapping

ANALYSIS: brighter pupils abandoned

Teachers complain that most of the final year of primary school is now given over to teaching narrowly to the test

PROFILES: Who are the captured sailors?

Four of the men seized in the Gulf are keen sailors who were heading for a regatta. The fifth is a Bahrain-based journalist

Hyslop stripped of education role

Alex Salmond demotes Education Minister after barrage of criticism over failure to deliver on promise to cut class sizes

Cancer postcode lottery 'is killing thousands'

Charities and MPs condemn variations in survival rates caused by late diagnosis and unequal access to treatment

Iran threatens British sailors with 'serious punishment'

Tehran says the five yachtsmen who strayed into Iranian waters will be dealt with harshly if 'evil intentions' are discovered

2009's most Googled name? Stephen Gately

Boyzone singer's death makes him the most searched-for personality in Google's UK searches, beating Michael Jackson

BBC broadcast faked scenes in daytime auction show

Sun, Sea and Bargain Spotting featured production staff buying antiques while pretending to be members of the public

Independent Scotland could pay the price

The freedom that Mr Salmond says would liberate the Scottish economy, now looks in the present climate to be shackling

Salmond unveils independence White Paper

First Minister says he is‘prepared to be flexible’, but all three Unionist parties in Scotland oppose ‘white elephant’

British Library to return looted 12thC book

The Benevento Missal, stolen from a cathedral in 1943, could be returned to Italy within months under new Holocaust law

£6bn Aids project 'not reaching most in need'

International Development Committee says that sex workers and drug-users are not benefiting from healthcare strategy

To spend, or to save: that is the question

Figures show that consumers are choosing to pay down their debts and are not spending as much as the Government had hoped

First 83ft superlorry hits UK roads

A 74-year-old freight company owner will exploit a legal loophole to drive a 25-metre truck banned on UK roads

Special forces provide unique abilities

The SAS have already crippled car bomb networks, killed or captured hundreds of key targets and rescued several hostages