SALARY increases in the public sector under Labour are outstripping those in private business, prompting warnings that Scotland's economy will suffer as a result.

JACK Straw yesterday warned the Prime Minister against sacking or demoting Gordon Brown after the general election, laying bare the internal power struggle set to convulse the party in its expected third term.

SECRET PAPERSA DEVOLVED Scotland would become a left-wing, one-party state, the Scottish Office warned ministers 30 years ago.

FROM today those seeking to obtain government information should find it a little easier, thanks to new freedom of information legislation.

MINISTERS have been accused of exaggerating the terrorist threat to Britain.

A LIKING for bigger birds ruined the traditional Christmas Day meal for hundreds of Britons, a report showed yesterday.

A FORMER soldier spoke yesterday of his heartbreak after receiving letters which would have changed his life - 60 years too late.

TESCO, the supermarket group, yesterday announced another round of price cuts and promised to reduce the cost of 500 products by an average of 9 per cent from next week.

A 27-YEAR-OLD man was being questioned last night about the murder of pregnant teenager Amy Williams.

IT HAS survived rationing and the Atkins diet and now Britain's best-selling chocolate bar is celebrating its 100th birthday.

THE re-introduction into Britain of the Great Bustard, the world's heaviest flying bird, was hailed a success yesterday.

VIEWING figures for the Queen's speech this Christmas fell to the lowest of recent times, with just 5.5 million people watching it on BBC1 and 1.5 million on ITV1.

EDINBURGH'S Hogmanay party went ahead as planned last night, as more than 100,000 revellers crowded on to Princes Street to see in the New Year.

THE parents of a five-year-old girl, the youngest British victim of the tsunami, told last night of their final moments with their daughter.

SECRET PAPERSGOVERNMENT'S confidential files reveal how the cost of bamboo shoots threatened to turn a goodwill gesture sour and many more as papers published in 30-year rule.

CASH believed to have been stolen during last month's £22 million Belfast bank raid was used at an ice rink near the Northern Ireland capital, it emerged yesterday.

SECRET PAPERSIT MAY go down as the unlikeliest attempt ever to broker a settlement to the long-running Troubles in Northern Ireland.

A QUANTITY surveyor killed his five-year-old daughter and then hanged himself just days after Christmas, it was revealed yesterday.

CONFIDENTIAL files released under the 30-year rule recount the princess's 1974 ordeal when a man tried to kidnap her in a mall.