Scotland's week in the news

BBC News Online Scotland looks back at the stories making the headlines over the last week.

The Renee MacRae mystery has endured for 28 years

Police on Monday began to excavate a Highland quarry in an effort to find the bodies of a mother and her son who disappeared in the 70s.

The pair vanished 28 years ago and in that time the case has become one of the most notorious in Scottish criminal history.

A new combined vaccination for children will be introduced in Scotland.

The new jab will not include a mercury preservative but officials said its removal was not due to safety concerns.

The pass rate for Higher English jumped, according to figures released as pupils received their results.

The results issued by the Scottish Qualifications Authority on Tuesday showed a point rise in the overall Higher pass rate to 70.7%.

Two ex-warders from Scotland's only private jail, Kilmarnock, were in court for planting heroin on an inmate.

David Allen was jailed for four years and John Robertson was ordered to carry out 300 hours community service.

Rain turned the main route north into a river

Torrential rain on Wednesday continued to cause problems across the country.

The worst affected area was Tayside, where landslides closed sections of the A9 - the main route north from Perth to Inverness.

Two doctors brought in from Poland to provide emergency cover at Caithness General Hospital were sacked.

The pair were working as obstetricians and were dismissed because of concerns over their clinical standards. Staff and patients had complained.

A 20-year-old member of the 1st Battalion the Black Watch, Private Marc Ferns, was killed on Thursday in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

A colleague was seriously injured in the bomb attack. The soldiers were on a routine exercise protecting fellow British troops.

Calls were made for fresh investment in Scotland's infrastructure to help it cope better with extreme weather.

Marc Ferns' death in Iraq led his mother to make a plea to the PM

A big clean-up operation was launched after a week of rainstorms.

The mother of the soldier killed in Iraq urged Tony Blair on Friday to order the withdrawal of British troops.

Pte Ferns, from Glenrothes, died after an improvised bomb exploded beside a road as he and colleagues were on patrol.

Shetland MSP Tavish Scott urged Scottish Water to come clean over problems with supplies in the islands.

Scottish Water blamed the problems on "unprecedented demand" and said that the situation was getting back to normal.

It will now seek a meeting with Mr Scott, who said the body had to "stop looking for scapegoats".

Scottish Water urged people in Shetland to conserve supplies due to the strain being placed on one of the main treatment works.

The controversy happened while other parts of Scotland counted the cost of heavy rain and flooding.