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By Cara Sulieman
POLICE are hunting a flasher after he exposed himself to two women out walking their dog.
The sex pest struck just early this morning when he exposed himself in Dunfermline, Fife.
Two women – one aged 25 and the other 45 – were walking through the park between Harris Park and Queensferry Road at quarter past midnight when the man approached them.
After revealing himself to the walkers, he ran off towards the Pitcorthie area of the town.
By Cara Sulieman
SCOTTISH DJ Calvin Harris is headlining at the Ministry of Sound Hogmanay party in London this year.
The controversial musician will be joined by Eric Prydz and Dave Spoon at the O2 Arena in the capital.
Nine hours of music has been lined up for the spectacular event which will include pyrotechnics and a suspended walkway.
It seems that the DJ is looking forward to the evening – Harris posted a link to the gig on his Twitter, saying: “This is going to be DADDY BIG BOLLOCKS.”
HERITAGE bosses are looking for firms to repopulate Scotland’s rivers with fresh water mussels – after pearl hunters took the species to the brink of extinction.
Three separate kills of the threatened mollusc were recorded in the west of Scotland last month.
Police believe the mussels are being hunted by poachers who are looking to get their hands on a freshwater pearl – which can fetch up to £2,500 each and appear in Scotland’s Crown Jewels.
But the EU has banned fishing for the mussels and it is a criminal offence to disturb or kill them – it can attract a fine of up to £5,000.
Scottish National Heritage (SNH) said the freshwater pearl mussel is a globally at risk species with Scotland homing some of the largest remaining populations.
The recent kills -discovered in Harris, Skye and Lochaber – are said to have put those pockets of mussels at risk of extinction.
A TINY Harris Tweed weaving company who supplied the material for shoes worn by Madonna has hit the jackpot with another huge contract.
Luskentyre Harris Tweed has just signed a lucrative deal with shoe giant Clarks to supply over 1000 yards of the fabric for their new range of desert boots.
Weaver Donald John MacKay is currently making tweed for two types of Clarks’ boots and hopes if the style catches on the shoe company will increase their already substantial order.
The Harris Tweed industry as a whole is also hoping to cash in on the mega-deal.
The one-man operation on the Isle of Harris hit the headlines five years ago when MacKay landed the contract to supply Nike with 10,000 yards of the world-famous cloth for an exclusive range of new trainers.
Tweed had long tried to break free from its staid, old-fashioned image and the Nike contract helped the fabric gain some valuable street-cred.
The coarse-chequered cloth was subsequently championed by fashion icons such as Ralph Lauren, Madonna and Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker.
Mr MacKay is now hard at work completing over 1,000 yards of material for the high-street footwear specialists Clarks, which will go to making the new ranges of women’s boots and desert boots this summer.
The weaver is still being coy about the new deal but has admitted he hopes the boots will prove popular and that more tweed will be needed.
Steve Hooper, marketing manager for Clarks, said: “One of the styles will be a ladies high 1970s boot and the other will be in the desert boot, which was the brainchild of desert boot designer Nathan Clark.
“We are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the desert boot next year and we wanted to use top-quality British materials to style the desert boot to commemorate each decade of the 60 years.
“The Harris Tweed desert boot we felt reflects the 1950s and it will be available in August.
“The boots will be available from 30 of our own stores, online and also in wholesalers and other top show shops.
The idea came from Sebastian Edwards, who is a descendant of Nathan Clark, and he has a good understanding of the materials required.”
Mr Mackay’s tweed – whose dull-green weave caught the imagination of Nike – adorns upholstery, soft furnishings, designer handbags and designer hats all across the globe
But the Harris Tweed industry was criticised when it failed to capitalise on the potential of the link with Nike, which came through Mr MacKay’s own initiative.
It is now understood the Harris Tweed Authority is considering how this latest contract could be used to raise the cloth’s profile.
Mr MacKay’s methods of working haven’t changed in the near 40 years he’s been weaving Harris Tweed in his compact loom shed which overlooks the golden sands of Luskentyre beach.
He landed the huge contract with Nike in 2004 when the sports giant was looking for a way to update a trainer called The Terminator, a basketball shoe from the 1980s, and wanted to use Harris Tweed as a key part of the design.
By Cara Sulieman
A GLASWEGIAN who can’t speak a word of Gaelic dreamt up Scotland’s new Celtic social networking site.
Hot on the heels of Facebook and Myspace, Scotland’s 60,000 Gaelic speakers now have their own version – mygaelic.com
And English-speaking web surfers will be able to translate the site from the native tongue into English at the click of a mouse.
Gillian Thompson, 31, pitched her idea of a Gaelic facebook-type website to the Bord an Gaidhlig who were looking for ways to reach out to Scots and encourage them to learn the traditional language.
Despite being from the Central Belt and with no knowledge of Gaelic, Gillian wanted to help the Bord an Gaidhlig promote the language.
And she was stunned when they agreed to fund the £250,000 site.
She said: “Gaelic is an essential part of Scotland and it needs to be preserved and celebrated. The Welsh have done such a great job with their language and we can learn so much from them.
“The language has been in decline for years and needs a boost, which is why I jumped at the chance to help create this website.”
Although the Bord an Gaidhlig asked for an information portal, the director of the IT firm Creative Cell, is giving them an awful lot more.
Creating their own profile, users of mygaelic.com will be able to chat with one another as well as finding out more about the Celtic legacy.
There will be a list of Gaelic courses across the country, as well as information about the Highlands and Islands, the traditional home of the language.
It is hoped that by using the site, people will discover their Celtic roots and acquire a love for the language.
Gillian herself found that she had relatives from the Gaelic community, with her grandfather travelling down to Glasgow from the tiny island of Bernera in the Sound of Harris.
She said: “It wasn’t until I started researching the community background to the language that I realised I had connections to the Islands. I’ve vowed to learn Gaelic this year – I really should practice what I preach.”
Users can chose whether to view the website in English, Gaelic, or simple Gaelic, allowing them to adjust the settings to their ability.
Rosemary Ward, acting CEO for Bord an Gadhlig, said: “We’re aiming to raise awareness about Gaelic. It’s the year of the Homecoming Scotland and we thought it would be the perfect time to start pushing the language a bit more.
“Many people will have Gaelic connections but they wont know about it. The website aims to point non-Gaelic speakers in the right direction to finding out more about their Celtic links.”
A date is yet to be fixed for the launch of the site, but the team are aiming for the end of this month. With plans for a launch party in Glasgow’s George Square, Gillian is getting ready to unveil the new Internet sensation.
Deadline Press & Picture Agency 