The seminar will see the First Minister try to persuade a European audience of the benefits of Scotland being a full member state of the EU.

First minister Alex Salmond said: "The poll is further and dramatic evidence that as the SNP delivers good government in the devolved areas, so support for Scotland to be governed equally well in all areas with independence is surging.

And the poll clearly indicates that Westminster attempts to bully Scotland and the Scottish government are also boosting support for equality for Scotland, and a parliament with full powers.

"People want a government that will speak up for Scotland - not shut up for London. It is a tremendous boost for the SNP in the run up to our conference next week - it will have our opponents choking on their cornflakes."

Leslie Clark said he fears his party winning the next general election as he believes it will make Scottish independence inevitable.

The President of the University of Aberdeen Conservative and Unionist Association also claimed that disgruntled southern voters are looking for their own version of William Wallace to "free the oppressed English nation" from Gordon Brown and the Scots.

"When the proponents of devolution argued that the Tories had no moral mandate running Scotland in the early 1990s when they only had 11 seats, just imagine what it will be like once the Tories win at Westminster with barely any Scottish representation!

"Alex Salmond will claim that they have no real democratic legitimacy to run Scotland. We could then see a seismic shift in public opinion."

"We should not frighten or bribe Scotland into maintaining the Union. We should not treat the electorate as children.

"Scotland and England would survive perfectly well apart – not that I advocate that policy.

The Government is anxious that regulation of the legal professions is improved and strengthened. The enactment of this Bill, in addition to the existing forms of oversight, will ensure that the highest of standards are maintained in the legal professions. As the Bill progresses through the Oireachtas I will consider any practical amendment to the Bill that complements the overarching purpose of this piece of legislation; the improved regulation of the legal professions."

In a Scotland Week speech at the University of Virginia, the First Minister used the founding father's work to promote a referendum on independence for Scotland.

In his second keynote speech of the week he said: "Scotland, sooner rather than later, is entitled to have the right to choose our constitutional future.

"That is a guiding principle for the debate on Scotland's future – a national conversation involving all the people of Scotland.

"And it is the words of Thomas Jefferson that will inspire us: 'We are a people capable of self-government, and worthy of it'."

The system of compulsory military service will be carried forward and strengthened: The system of universal military service is itself a key factor in maintaining the Norwegian people’s deep-rooted support for the Armed Forces. The number of conscripts undergoing a period of initial military service will remain stable at the current level. The content will be strengthened and the period of initial service will be extended to 12 months for all.

The Government is bringing in mandatory screening sessions for women, based on the positive results experienced with the scheme for voluntary sessions. This will ensure that all young women in a particular age group will have access to information about the life offered by the armed services. This in turn will help to strengthen the recruiting of women to the services. At the same time the sessions themselves will be improved by dividing them into two parts with the first part devoted to exploring the individual’s own interests and aspirations. This will enhance the quality of the sessions while at the same time making it easier for contact to be made with those who are the most motivated and best suited to service in the Armed Forces.

“The UN and NATO are the bedrock on which Norway’s security policy is based. We will continue to make substantial contributions to international operations,” says Defence Minister Anne-Grete Strøm-Erichsen in conclusion.

The crux in the political discussions was reached today when the Portuguese Presidency presented its latest compromise. The reform contains a number of positive elements such as increased National Envelopes which will be instrumental in helping the sector in accordance with the exigencies of the different European regions, and the late negotiation has substantially increased Malta’s financial allocation.

And there's more work to be done. Taoiseach; as you said, the devolution of policing is important, and we support that.

We also look forward to seeing the devolution of policing and justice to the Northern Ireland Executive, as agreed at St. Andrew's.

Giske plans to put forth what's known as a stortingsmelding, or "white paper," on the Norwegian language at the end of next month. It won't merely be concerned with comma rules or grammatical matters.

Rather, it's the survival of the language itself that will be the subject of the declaration. Giske is seriously worried that Norwegian is being too heavily influenced by English, not least because of the Internet and the emergence of English as the common language of the globe.

"Languages around the world are simply disappearing, not being used anymore," Giske told news bureau NTB. "Norwegian is under entirely new pressure than it was just a few years ago, especially because of the development of the Internet and the media."

Giske, who hails from the left wing of the Labour Party, wants to make sure that a full Norwegian vocabulary is upheld within business and academia. Those are two areas that he feels are particularly subject to too much influence from English.

He criticizes companies like airline SAS, for example, which stresses English on its website even though it's part-owned by the Norwegian government.

Sylfest Lomheim of the state language council known as Språkrådet says a government declaration on Norwegian will be the most important on the language in the past 40 years.

"It will represent an attempt to create a new language policy that we haven't had in the country before," he said. "In the 1900s, a declaration on language involved issues of how it was written. Now it involves how the language shall survive."

JUST before midday yesterday, the political ground in Scotland shifted, starting a process that will change the United Kingdom for ever. Professor Sir Kenneth Calman, one of the country's senior academics, was unveiled as the chairman of a new cross-party, cross-Border commission to review the devolution settlement.

These are the four main possibilities the commission will explore:

1. THE STATUS QUO

Sir Kenneth knows he is acting under the auspices of the main Unionist parties who want to see movement, particularly financial, in the devolution settlement and he will be under pressure to justify the commission's role.

2.NON-FINANCIAL POWERS

The main ones – defence and foreign affairs – will remain in place because these represent the last bulwarks of the Union. If the Scottish Parliament was given charge of these policy areas, Scotland really would be independent. Sir Kenneth Calman's job is to consider whether any of the more minor powers should now be transferred to Edinburgh.

Some are small, self-contained policy areas like control over broadcasting or abortion policy in Scotland, issues which were considered for the Scottish Parliament but rejected by the UK government during the discussions in 1998.

3.ASSIGNING TAX REVENUES

If, for example, stamp duty raises £500 million a year in Scotland, then that would be allocated under that heading. The advantage of this system is that it introduces a limited degree of control and responsibility. If revenues in one area go up, so the money coming to the Scottish Parliament in this area would go up, so it would be in the interest of the Scottish Government to improve the economy and hence improve the buoyancy of tax receipts in a particular area.

4.TAX-VARYING POWERS

SIR Kenneth's commission could solve some of the problems of assigned tax revenues by recommending that various tax levers are handed over to the parliament (Scottish) as well.

Its mandate includes such responsibilities as ensuring compliance with the judicial code of ethics and making sure that the judges have the appropriate ways and means of maintaining and further developing their knowledge.

Some 400 judges come under this council's jurisdiction—the judges of the Court of Québec, those of the Human Rights Tribunal, the Professions Tribunal and the municipal courts as well as the presiding justices of the peace.

Bernard Hogan-Howe, Chief Constable of Merseyside, said last night that the mandatory five-year minimum sentence for possession of a firearm was being ignored by some members of the judiciary.

Mr Hogan-Howe, whose force is investigating the murder last year of 11-year-old Rhys Jones, said “very heavy sentences” were essential to deter criminals and teenage gang members from carrying weapons. It was, he said, “simply wrong” for judges to overlook the legal requirement to hand down a five-year sentence.

McLeish, who ran the former Scottish Executive from 2000 to 2001, said: "We need an open and inclusive conversation to discuss our future, one in which all the positive options are included – the current devolution settlement, more powers, independence and also a form of federalism."

The management of charitable fundraising activities is a rewarding, though exacting task; but persons and organisations conducting such activities are aided by an Act and a code of regulations and authority conditions that provide prudent controls and working methods.

The objects of the Charitable Fundraising Act 1991 are:

to promote proper and efficient management and administration of fundraising appeals for charitable purposes; to ensure proper keeping and auditing of accounts in connection with such appeals; and to prevent deception of members of the public who desire to support worthy causes.

OSCR published its first profile of the Scottish charity sector, Scottish Charities 2005 in January 2006. This was based on Annual Returns submitted to OSCR in advance of the commencement of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005. We intend to publish Scottish Charities 2007 in spring 2008. This will provide our first profile of the sector based on Annual Returns and Monitoring Returns submitted in a full year.

In the meantime, we are able to publish some facts and figures summarised from the Scottish Charity Register. Key points are as follows.

The total annual income for charities entered in the Scottish Charity Register is over £10 billion. There are 19 charities responsible for 36.6% of the sector's total income. Two thirds of charities have an annual income under £25,000.

The Scottish Government has power over an area 12 miles out from the coast. Mr Lochhead wants that to be extended up to 200 miles out.

EirGrid has approximately 250 highly-skilled staff and contractors who work on the operation of the electricity market and power system and, with the Regulators and System Operators, Northern Ireland, on the development of a new All Island Market for Electricity. It is developing new East-West and North-South interconnectors.

EirGrid is owned by the Irish State and is established as a result of a government decision to create an independent organisation to carry out the TSO function, in order to assist the liberalisation of Ireland's electricity industry and the development of a competitive market.