Operation Christmas Child is sending a big ‘Thank You' to the people of County Durham who have responded superbly to their annual appeal to donate gift-filled shoeboxes for children facing challenging lives in a host of countries.

 Operation Christmas Child is sending a big ‘Thank You' to the people of West Lothian who have responded superbly to their annual appeal to donate gift-filled shoeboxes for children facing challenging lives in a host of countries.

Over 1,000 Christmas shoeboxes full of presents have been handed in by members of the public, schools, companies, churches and organisations from communities across the county, including Whitburn, West-Calder, Livingston, Linlithgow, Broxburn, Armadale and Bathgate.

• The name of the game is entrepreneurial fame as students gather in Edinburgh to in a bid to becoming tomorrow's business leaders

Scottish students keen to follow in some illustrious entrepreneurial footsteps will converge on Pollock Halls, Edinburgh on Tuesday (25th November) for the Scottish Institute for Enterprise 2008 Summit to hear two very different tales of achieving building a business empire.

Attempting to create new business development opportunities in these trying economic times are beset with overcoming all manner of obstacles and difficulties, but as Edinburgh business owners will hear next week, the growth potential across a number of key consumer sectors can lie with the collaborative assistance of Scotland's academic community.

Paul Thompson (42) has joined Scott-Moncrieff as a Business Advisory partner, adding further commercial experience to the firm following his eight years at Glasgow-based Lift Maintenance Limited, with whom he was General Manager.

AADE - American Association of Drilling Engineers

Surface Active Solutions MISTTM drill cuttings cleaning system

Surface Active Solutions, Inc is introducing its unique and patented microemulsion technology for the treatment of drilling waste in North America.

Scott-Moncrieff, one of Scotland's leading independent accountancy and professional services firms, has reported steady growth for the financial year 2007-08, with overall revenues of £13.1 million, up 4% from £12.6m for the previous 12 months. The firm has experienced continued growth in all principal disciplines and will make an announcement about further expansion of its Wealth Management Services in the near future.

At a competition held in the Robert Burns Centre in Dumfries on June 5th, primary school pupils from several schools in Dumfries & Galloway took part in a public speaking competition that was the final element in a groundbreaking education technique which is attracting interest from education authorities throughout the UK and overseas.

With fuel prices escalating like never before, times are increasingly harder for small courier companies. The cost of maintaining a fleet of vehicles, large and small, is becoming a huge daily burden for many, but help may just be at hand to help defray some of the daily running costs, thanks to The Pod Father, the UK's first pay-as-you-go tariff and the most integrated Proof of Delivery (PoD) system on the market.

On June 5th at the Robert Burns Centre in Dumfries, pupils from several schools in Dumfries & Galloway will demonstrate skills they are learning as part of an innovatory educational technique which is attracting interest from Canada and South Africa, as well as other parts of the UK.