Scotland on Friday

WELCOME to today's tasty news morsels, including SPORT, FASHION, TELEVISION, BUSINESS and the INTERNET.

RED TOP REVIEW
By Nick Drainey
Football frequently makes the news pages in tabloid land and the Scottish Sun has gone with two today.

Strachan's son to become a hack
The first concerns Gordon Strachan - a man not known for a friendly relationship with the press. So when the paper learned that the Celtic manager's son, Gavin, was training to be a journalist they couldn't resist poking fun. The headline is a spoof quote from the Hoops boss: "Oh my Gord! You want to be a what?"
Click here to read the full story

Footballer's stolen car mystery cleared up
After a story earlier in the week about Wayne Rooney putting petrol in his wife's top of the range diesel 4x4, The Sun has a strange tale about former United star Mickey Thomas. Apparently the former Wales international blamed arch-rival "Scousers for nicking his car" but in actual fact the 54-year-old had forgotten where he had parked it. The player could see the funny side after the car was found, however, telling the paper: "I got a call from the police. It was obvious they were laughing - and said the wheels were still on! Everyone's been in stitches."
Click here to read the full story

Muslim cleric's daughter is a pole dancer
The Sun really does lead the way with exclusives this morning with a story about exiled Muslim cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed with the revelation that his daughter is a pole dancer. Yasmin Fostok, 27, who split from an arranged marriage to a Turkish man, has been working in London's West End. She even told the paper: "I'm willing to go topless if the venue is right." She added: "I don't get on with my dad." Speaking from his home in the Lebanon the preacher said: "If this is true I am deeply shocked. She was brought up properly in the Muslim faith, but she is free to make her own choices in life. But I am still shocked."
Click here to read the full story

BUSINESS
By Will Lyons
US bail-out deal ends in 'shouting match'
Congress is still struggling to approve a proposal to agree a £380bn bail-out of the US financial industry as talks have ended in a "shouting match". After several hours of discussions with George W Bush, a group of Republican members of Congress blocked the government plan.

Financial markets are gummed up because banks do not know exactly how much bad debt they hold and are therefore reluctant to lend to businesses, consumers and each other. Meanwhile, JP Morgan Chase, the American banking giant, announced that it would buy the bulk of Washington Mutual's operations for $1.9bn after heavy losses on high-risk sub-prime mortgages bought the group to the brink of collapse.

TELEVISION
By Fiona Leith

Detective under suspicion
As with all great fictional detectives, Val McDermid's creation Tony Hill has a killer touch. In the first of a two-parter, tonight's drama sees an ex-colleague, who Hill meets at a psychology convention and who makes a pass at him, come a cropper in the middle of the night. The finger of suspicion points in Robson Green's character's direction.
Wire In The Blood, STV, 9pm

Grant Mitchell gets tougher
Out of the way, Donal McIntyre, mind your back, Michael Moore, there's a new people's champion and he comes in the shape of...Grant Mitchell from EastEnders. No, no, there's so much more to Ross Kemp than that, as he proves his mettle infiltrating the Mungiki gang of Kenya, who are thought to be responsible for a large share of the deaths and corruption in the country.
Ross Kemp - A Kenya Special, Sky One, 9pm

Chat show chums
Britain is too little for David Walliams and Matt Lucas, so they created Little Britain USA, which starts on BBC1 next Friday. They give Wossy the low-down on the new show, as does Jamie Oliver, who returns to plug Jamie's Ministry Of Food, and Hot Fuzz star Simon Pegg makes it four as he talks about his new film, How To Lose Friends And Alienate People.
Tonight with Jonathan Ross, BBC1, 11.10pm

FASHION

Pictured (left to right): Sonique, Katherine Kramer, Sir Paul McCartney

Tartain terror

For anybody who didn't get the warning from the Pussycat Dolls earlier in the week, here is another reason why tartan is this season's most dangerous trend. As singer Sonique models perfectly here, there is a very real risk of looking like a biscuit tin. Tartan troos have been controversial in Scotland for some time, but with a matching jacket? Not even Alex Salmond would dare to try that one.

In gold blood
When J-Lo made gold popular I wasn't convinced by it. When everybody started copying P Diddy's chunky dollar sign jewellery I wasn't that taken either. But choreographer Katherine Kramer has pushed the bling look too far - a handbag that looks like a guitar? This girl is on the edge of good taste even for the music industry, but judging by the look on her face she just doesn't care.

Let him sneeze
Sir Paul McCartney has found a niche market while performing in Israel for his newest composition - synchronised sneezing. Either that or it just takes a lot more puff these days for the 66-year-old singer to get through the chorus of Yellow Submarine.

SPORT
Euro Championship expansion good for Scotland
Scotland's chances of qualifying for a major international tournament will be strengthened today when Uefa approves a plan to expand the European Championship from 16 to 24 teams.

The first enlarged tournament will take place in 2016, and with eight extra places up for grabs Scotland will hope to end their exile from major finals.

Scotland last qualified for a tournament in 1998 when they reached the World Cup finals in France. Their last participation in the European Championship finals came two years earlier when England hosted Euro 96.

The idea to expand the Euros was proposed by the Scottish Football Association and will be rubber-stamped at a meeting of Uefa's executive committee in France this afternoon.

There is a negative side to the expansion, however. It is unlikely Scotland would be able to ever host the tournament because they do not have the required number of stadia to accommodate the extra teams.

INTERNETWebsite of the day
Just when you thought it was safe to switch on your computer, here's the definitive list of the 100 most scary scenes in film history. From the stomach-churning scene in Alien to Edward Woodward's downfall in the Wicker Man, they are all there.
http://www.filmsite.org/scariestscenes1.html