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Video report by ITV News Scotland Correspondent Peter Smith
Alex Salmond has questioned the Crown Office’s “unprecedented and highly irregular actions” after it intervened to have his evidence redacted a day before he was due to give evidence to the parliamentary inquiry into the Scottish Government’s unlawful investigation of sexual harassment claims against him.The former first minister s legal team are calling for the Lord Advocate to explain the “astonishing” intervention that led to the Scottish Parliament redacting swathes of his evidence to the inquiry investigating the handling of complaints made against him.
Mr Salmond’s written evidence, accusing First Minister Nicola Sturgeon of misleading Holyrood and breaching the ministerial code which she denies, was redacted following a letter from the Crown Office expressing concern about possible contempt of court.
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Video report by ITV News Scotland Correspondent Peter Smith
An extraordinary rescue mission ended in success on the island of Orkney after a stranded killer whale was returned to the ocean.
The young orca was found beached on the sand of the island, off the northeastern coast of Scotland, crying out for help.
Conveniently, the UK s leading marine life rescue team is based in Orkney.
Emma Neave-Webb, from British Divers Marine Life Rescue, helped in the rescue mission and said the young orca had possible become stuck after feeding in shallow waters.
A team of local residents and the marine rescue professionals helped return the killer whale to the water in an extremely rare success story.
Video report by ITV News Scotland Correspondent Peter Smith
Today, in what’s become Scotland’s annual day of shame, the yearly drug death statistics will be published.
ITV News has learned they will be worse than ever before - the worst, in fact, on record.
This is especially concerning since last year’s figures were so bad: crossing the 1,000 threshold for the first time ever; overtaking alcohol-related deaths for the first time in Scotland; and overtaking America to make Scottish drug deaths the worst per capita in the developed world.Two years ago, the Scottish Government declared these drugs deaths a ‘public health emergency’ and a Task Force was set up to find out what exactly is going on, as well as how to address it.The person leading this Task Force is Professor Catriona Matheson, who told me Scotland has a particular issue with what’s known as ‘poly-drug use.’