Scotland's week in the news

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

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The father of a boy killed by a hit-and-run driver high on drink and drugs condemned the 11-year jail sentence he was given on Monday.

Andrew Sneddon's five-year-old son Ross was killed when Dean Martin, 23, lost control of a stolen car, mounted a pavement and struck the young boy in Glenrothes earlier this year.

From left: Anne Martin, her daughter Ashley and Ross Sneddon

Martin also killed Anne Martin, 39, and her eight-year-old daughter Ashley and fled the scene of the accident in February, 2004.

Councillors in Lochaber threw out four out of five bids by a company planning a huge wind farm in Morvern and Ardnamurchan.

Objectors argued Wind Energy Ltd masts would lead to the construction of Europe's largest wind farm.

The company said it was disappointed because the decision was against the planning recommendation.

On Tuesday politician John Swinney announced his decision to step down as leader of the Scottish National Party.

The MSP for Tayside North made the move amid growing internal concern over the party's direction and performance.

The Scottish Premier League voted in favour of Inverness Caledonian Thistle being promoted in a second ballot on the First Division champions' future.

The club's ground-sharing proposal with Aberdeen received a 10-2 majority backing after Partick Thistle, who finished bottom of the SPL, failed in a legal bid to halt the meeting.

Eddie Aldridge stood to benefit from the forgery

The former convener of Moray Council was jailed for 18 months on Wednesday after admitting forging the will of an elderly neighbour.

Eddie Aldridge became the main beneficiary of Mary Coutts' £100,000-plus estate and pleaded guilty to changing the 93-year-old's will in January.

MSPs passed a bill replacing the first-past-the-post voting system for local elections with the single transferable vote (STV).

The proposal was one of the key measures of the controversial Local Governance Bill and passed its final stage in the Scottish Parliament by 96 votes to 18.

The new system could be in place for the next council elections in 2007.

On Thursday two Scots servicemen were released after being held in Iran for four days.

They were part of a group of six Royal Marines and two sailors seized in the Shatt al-Arab waterway after mistakenly straying over the country's maritime border.

They were flown to Tehran and taken to the British embassy compound in the Iranian capital.

Meanwhile, Nicola Sturgeon put her name forward for the leadership of the SNP.

Would-be leaders Nicola Sturgeon (left) and Roseanna Cunningham

The Glasgow list MSP said she would bring a "new style of leadership" if elected and followed Roseanna Cunningham into the leadership contest.

The company whose factory blew up in Glasgow in June announced on Friday it was considering laying off staff in the near future.

Stockline Plastics planned to write to employees but said the letters would not contain notices of redundancies at this stage.

The Scottish Executive came under fire from Holyrood's finance committee over its policy of relocating public sector jobs.

The all-party committee launched an inquiry after ministers announced plans to move Scottish Natural Heritage staff to Inverness.

The committee said the switch could threaten the agency's effectiveness.