The Point magazine The Rudhach is the Community Newspaper of the Year, it was announced at the Highlands and Islands Media awards on Friday evening. The Rudhach was commended for its broad appeal, global readership and for stories from the past as well as the present. The award was presented by Richard Lochead, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment, at the Press Ball in Nairn on Friday night. Ness newsletter Fios was highly commended in the same category, and Annie Delin’s coverage of the fight to save Stornoway Coastguard on Isles FM was also highly commended in the category top story of the year. The bilingual Scottish Chart Show, produced by MG Alba and carried on Isles FM each Thursday evening, won the Bòrd na Gaidhlig award for Best Gaelic Show. Presenters Roya Maclean and Davy D. said they were delighted their efforts to reach new Gaelic speakers though chart music had been recognised.

A second Western Isles man accused of the murder of teenager Liam Aitchison has been granted bail. The Crown Office confirmed that a bail application by lawyers for Johnathan MacKinnon, 21, of Stornoway, has been successful and he was released from jail on Tuesday. His co-accused, Stefan Millar, 20, of Carloway, was also bailed in December to an address on mainland Scotland. Both men were arrested following the discovery of the body of Liam Aitchison, 16, originally from Lochboisdale, South Uist, in a disused building beside Stornoway airport. A major police inquiry involved 60 officers and several properties were searched by forensics officers.  Liam's funeral was held on South Uist on December 30.

Fuel boss Sam Chambers told a public meeting in Stornoway that his firm is not responsible for high fuel prices on the islands. Mr Chambers said GB Oils Ltd, parent company of Scottish Fuels, made just 2.6p a litre on diesel. He was addressing a meeting of councillors, campaigners and members of the public, where he was told that the cost of fuel was a serious issue in the Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland. Local campaign leader Callum Iain Macmillan said the island campaign would link to national organizations fighting fuel poverty. Mr Chambers later told media “We are not in the business of trying to abuse anyone. We are trying to be fair and reasonable."

The price of fuel in the islands was once again on the agenda yesterday, as Scottish Fuels boss Sam Chambers braved the islands audience to explain why petrol prices here are so much higher than on the mainland. The island based protest group Action Now on Fuel Prices for Islanders said: “Most of us do not feel it has been satisfactorily explained to us why there is so much of a difference between the price here and that in mainland towns and cities – some of them even served by the same sea tanker that takes it here.” On the day of the meeting, forecourt pump prices stood at nearly 17p higher per litre of unleaded fuel in Uig than they are in Glasgow.

Highlands & Islands MSP David Stewart is in Stornoway today. delivering early copies of a DVD which promotes the road safety message of the North Of Scotland Driver Awareness Team (NOSDAT).  Mr Stewart will meet with Head of Education at the Comhairle, Joan Mackinnon, and hand over the campaign group’s recently completed film featuring the family of Callum Matheson, one of two young people killed in a fatal collision in Inverness last year. The film is part of the campaign ‘Sensible Driving – Always Arriving’ which has a political and educational message. Mr Stewart said: “We are able to show the viewer, first hand, the devastation such a tragedy brings to families. I wanted to donate a DVD of our film to every secondary school in the Highlands and Islands, and this is the purpose of this meeting”.  

A 30-year-old woman will appear in court from custody today after being tested positive for alcohol when she was stopped, while driving on Perceval Road in Stornoway, in the early hours of Sunday morning. She’s being charged with drink-driving.