The number of gay men in Scotland having unprotected sex has almost doubled over six years, a study says.
At the same time, unfounded confidence in the HIV negative status of casual partners has also increased, Sexually Transmitted Infections journal says.
The findings, which reflect trends seen in other UK areas, are based on surveys [...]

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AN Islamic radio station will be launched to coincide with the religious festival of Ramadan.
Radio Ramadan will be broadcast 24 hours a day across Edinburgh during the month-long period of worship and abstinence, from October 4.
The station will air discussions about issues affecting Muslims, such as the status of women in Islam, the [...]

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A man who used his mobile phone to replay footage of a beheading in Iraq to a hotel shop worker has been jailed for 60 days.
Subhaan Younis, 23, played the images to shocked Charlotte McClay last September at a hotel in Glasgow.
Sentencing him at the city’s district court, the stipendiary magistrate said he could [...]

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FASLANE submarine base and the nearby Coulport missile depot are vulnerable to a deadly mortar or suicide boat attack, a nuclear weapons expert warns in a new book.
Dr Brian Jamison says the geographical position of the two facilities makes them susceptible to an al-Qaeda attack, and claims that submarines are rarely escorted by armed [...]

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[If someone else said that they would be branded racist-ed]
FIREBRAND Islamist cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed — banned from Britain since August — has urged Muslims to leave Europe.
Mr Bakri, a Lebanese national of Syrian origin who was living in Britain since 1986, was interviewed by France 3 television in Beirut.
He has been based there since [...]

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[so much for the war in Iraq was for Oil-ed]
BUSINESSES could be forced to close down and lay off workers this winter because the country’s energy reserves are so low, the director-general of the CBI warned yesterday.
“If we have a cold winter, we are going to throw the switch, businesses will shut down, people [...]

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SCOTS pupils will be among the first to visit a new exhibition dedicated to Anne Frank.
Youngsters from East Dunbartonshire will learn about the life of the brave German-Jewish teenager at Anne Frank + You which is due to open at Milngavie Town Hall in November.
The exhibition was launched in London earlier this year [...]

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SCOTTISH hospitals may have to import operating tables from the United States because their own are not strong enough to support fat patients.
Scalpels and ultrasound scanners are also unable to penetrate the deep layers of fat on many obese patients.
The warning came from Dr Alan Mathers, the clinical director of the Princess Royal [...]

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THE fast-food chain, Burger King, is withdrawing its ice-cream cones after the lid of the dessert offended a Muslim.
The man claimed the design resembled the Arabic inscription for Allah, and branded it sacrilegious, threatening a “jihad”.
The chain is being forced to spend thousands of pounds redesigning the lid with backing from The Muslim [...]

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White patients cope better with the pressure of cancer than their British Asian counterparts, research suggests.
The University of Leicester looked at coping strategies among 200 white and British Asian patients.
The British Journal of Cancer study found the most common method of coping among Asian people was simply to deny they were ill.
White [...]

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[we are told population is falling so why do we need all these extra holmes?-ed]
BRITAIN is facing a housing crisis with a potential shortfall of 1.4 million homes, according to experts.
A comprehensive analysis projects an increase of 3.5 million households by 2021, or 175,000 extra households per year, The Times has learnt.
Housing experts [...]

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THREE thousand junior doctors - trained at a cost of £250,000 each - are unemployed, it was claimed yesterday.
A third of them have given up trying to find work in the NHS and have decided to go private or move abroad, said the British Medical Association.
To train as a doctor, a student spends a minimum [...]

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A BID to change the name of the Scottish National Party has been blocked by bosses.
Grassroots members wanted a debate and vote on the matter at the SNP conference last week - because they fear the word “national” gives the party a bad name abroad.
In most parts of Europe, parties calling themselves “national” tend to [...]

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PLUMMETING membership numbers will wipe out the Labour Party by 2010, a shock report warns today.
Only 24 hours before the start of the Labour Conference in Brighton, a left-wing think tank said 200,000 people had left the party in the last five years.
With just over 200,000 members left, the Fabian Society fears the end is [...]

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[why would a 'Lord' be in a so called working class party like Labour?-ed]

Labour peer Lord Haskins has been expelled from the party for giving money to a Liberal Democrat candidate during the last election.
The wealthy businessman gave £2,500 to Lib Dem Danny Alexander, who beat Labour’s Dave Stewart in Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch [...]

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A CHINESE student was turned away from a city night club because of his race, he claimed today.
Michael Lee, who was born in the UK to Chinese parents, claims bouncers at Revolution nightclub on Lothian Road turned him away because he was Chinese.
The doormen allegedly told Mr Lee and a separate couple who [...]

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THE number of children charged with race crimes in Scotland has soared by 74 per cent in the past three years.
Some 197 youngsters were referred to the Children’s Reporter for race-related offences in 2004-5 compared to 113 in 2002-3. The figures, released by the Scottish Executive in a written parliamentary answer, have sparked accusations [...]

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The Liberal Democrats are to be investigated over a £2.4m donation received before May’s general election, the Electoral Commission has confirmed.
The inquiry centres on whether the donation was “permissible” as electoral law requires donating companies to be registered and trading in the UK.
The company, 5th Avenue Partners, said it had relied on the [...]

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Former Labour MSP Mike Watson has been sentenced to 16 months in prison for starting a fire which endangered lives at an Edinburgh hotel last November.
Earlier this month, Lord Watson had admitted wilful fire-raising.
Passing sentence, Sheriff Kathrine Mackie said a social enquiry assessment had concluded there was a significant risk of Watson [...]

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EXTREMIST groups have sympathisers and supporters in almost every corner of Britain including many parts of Scotland, anti-terrorist officials believe.
MI5 and Special Branch officers have drawn up a so-called extremist map of the UK showing the locations of groups and individuals suspected of involvement with militant groups, it was revealed yesterday.
The map, which [...]

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