ONE underage schoolgirl has an abortion every day in Scotland. Official statistics revealed 362 under-16s had pregnancies terminated in 2006 - up from 341 the previous year. There were 13,081 abortions carried out in 2006, with 3446 on women under 20.

By ROBBIE DINWOODIE CHIEF SCOTTISH POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT PLANS to raise the legal age for buying cigarettes were backed by a Holyrood committee yesterday, despite concerns about how it will be enforced.

MSPS will today back plans to raise the legal age to buy cigarettes to 18. The proposal cleared its last hurdle yesterday when Holyrood's health and sports committee backed the proposals.

NEARLY 5,000 underage girls - some at primary school - are on the pill, a figure that has doubled since 2001, according to a study due next month.

By MARK SMITH THE number of Scots diagnosed with alcoholic liver disease has doubled in the past decade, it was revealed yesterday. The figure has nearly trebled in the Highlands and Dumfries and Galloway - and it has quadrupled in the Western Isles, Executive health chiefs disclosed.