Location: Littleferry, Sutherland

HOLIDAYS may be temporarily on hold, but planning magical trips is still possible. Spontaneity shapes thrilling travel escapades, but there's also a case for careful, methodical planning. Often, the preparation – deciding on a route, reading up about a destination – can be just as enjoyable as the trip itself.

Mercy Teams International and a local church in Phnom Penh bring an Easter celebration to parents and children living in the slum.

Mercy Teams International (MTI) strives to see local workers in each ministry field trained and equipped as leaders. MTI Cambodia is one example.

A Dutch couple quit their jobs and change the lives of youth on the other side of the world.

OM worker Sokhem shares his testimony of leaving Buddhism to follow Jesus.

An OM worker in Cambodia shares about how a new training she is attending is transforming the way she does ministry.

Bulgaria coach Luboslav Penev and his staff encouraged over 120 children taking part in a grassroots event in Sofia designed to increase participation in football and other sports.

Maltese Premier League club Tarxien Rainbows FC is enriching the lives of a group of youngsters through football with a groundbreaking training scheme for children with special needs.

Now in charge of youth and children's football development at the Norwegian FA, Stig Inge Bjørnebye tells UEFA.com that there are '"no short cuts" to developing young talent.

The latest UEFA KISS workshop on the further development of women's football looked at ways of improving clubs' infrastructures as well as bolstering the foundations of the game.

The UEFA HatTrick programme has assisted in the construction of over 200 mini-pitches in Portugal since 2007, giving more youngsters the chance to play football in a safe environment.

The next UEFA Grassroots Workshop in 2013 will be hosted by the Football Association of Norway, an organisation renowned for its achievements in this vital area of the game.

Taking place the same weekend as the UEFA Champions League final in May, the Lennart Johansson Academy Trophy gives youngsters from Europe's bigger clubs a chance to impress.

Someone is mortally wounded, shot to bits by a stormtrooper, hacked to pieces by a zombie, legs crushed by a Sergio Ramos tackle, or crippled when their go-kart careered into a cartoon tree.

SCOTTISH energy storage start-up Gravitricity has received £300,000 from government agency Innovate UK to explore the potential to use gold mine shafts in South Africa as energy stores.

OMEGA Diagnostics shares jumped 77 per cent after it announced it is part of the UK rapid test consortium working to jointly develop and manufacture an antibody test.

NEATEBOX, the Scottish technology firm which specialises in improving accessibility for people with disabilities, has been accepted into an accelerator programme run by Royal Bank of Scotland.

Police have issued more than 140 fixed-penalty notices to people flouting coronavirus lockdown rules in Scotland in the week since new powers came into force.

THIS time last year the Scottish Government, Police Scotland and the Crown Office were united in great fanfare about groundbreaking new legislation designed to tackle domestic abuse.

GUTTING news for great swathes of the Great British public - eating chips is not exercise.

PRISON governors have been handed the power to veto prisoners they have concerns over being released early - as plans are pushed forward for up to 450 prisoners to be freed to allow inmates to socially distance in cells.

IT was a sombre appraisal, but the sense of relief was self-evident. “The war in Europe has ended at the last more suddenly than we sometimes dared to hope”, began the Glasgow Herald’s leading article on the morning of Tuesday, May 8, 1945.

It was 3pm on May 8 1945 when Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill addressed the nation from the Cabinet Room announcing that “we may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing,” but that message instead led to three days of partying in Glasgow’s George Square, children were given time off school and families were looking forward to being reunited again.

There will be no street parties on the 75th anniversary of VE Day on Friday, and it’s uncertain how many will participate in the virtual versions being touted on social media.

IT was on board a supply ship which had docked in the port of Marseille that Barney Roberts learned the news that the war was over.

It dates back to1885 and started out as a fund to help military families at home while the Second Expeditionary Force set sail for Egypt. Major James Gildea wrote a letter appealing for money and a fund was set up to provide allowances.

WITH the usual proviso that nothing, but nothing, in sport is in any way important when human lives are at stake due to coronavirus, nevertheless I do think it is time for some realism to surface in rugby – and other sports I could name.

EDINBURGH coach Richard Cockerill has taken two vital steps in rebuilding his squad for next season by signing stand-off Jono Lance from Worcester and centre Matt Gordon from London Scottish. With Simon Hickey and Matt Scott leaving at the end of the season, cover for both positions was a priority.

It was 25 years ago this month that the sporting world witnessed a miracle when the former pariah state of South Africa hosted what many people still consider to be the best ever Rugby World Cup finals.

British Olympic Association chairman Sir Hugh Robertson has been selected to lead an independent governance review of World Rugby.

Edinburgh Rugby have announced the signing of three Scottish qualified youngsters in Nathan Chamberlain, Ben Muncaster and Dan Gamble on academy deals which will turn into full-time contracts next summer, and head coach Richard Cockerill has promised that three current academy prospects in Rory Darge, Connor Boyle and Sam Grahamslaw will soon be elevated to the senior squad ahead of next season.

TEMPORARY walking and cycling routes are set to pop-up across Scotland in a bid to improve social distancing while Scots are now being advised to wear face coverings in “enclosed spaces”.

Global carbon emissions from energy are expected to fall by almost 8% in 2020 in the biggest drop in history as a result of the pandemic, experts said.

SCOTLAND’S workers could stay put in rural communities in the post-lockdown world - boosting countryside economies and cutting commuter traffic, a Holyrood cabinet secretary has suggested.

It is a tiny spit of land that lies in the Firth of Clyde two miles off the coast of Troon where colonies of seabirds have made their homes for centuries.

For many people, lockdown has meant looking for joy in the natural world around us.

IT is one of he most important seabird observatories in the world, but its very future was called into question when fire ravaged through it and left it no more than a pile of rubble.

WHEN Malian quartet Songhoy Blues performed at last year's Celtic Connections, audiences were treated to a form of music appealingly dubbed “desert blues”. A user-friendly term, it sounds like it could have been dreamed up by a marketing agency and applied equally well to a perfume, a brand of jeans or a chain of upmarket Tex-Mex restaurants.

THE most important lesson in life is to always travel in hope rather than expectation. That way the almost inevitable disappointment that follows isn’t quite as crushing. A cheery thought for these troubled times.

Speak to anyone involved in Scottish football and they'll tell you that the current crop of Under-16 players coming through the academy systems are among the best they've seen.

The great North-South divide in rugby was never more in evidence than when the votes were counted for the chairmanship of World Rugby last week. Sir Bill Beaumont stayed in the job, beating Agustin Pichot by 28 votes to 23, but wow, what an outcome in terms of who actually supported the former England and British Lions captain.

WOULD you still celebrate a cup final win for your team if you knew for absolute certain the game had been rigged?

SO, is it a smoking gun after all? Or is it just a damp water pistol?

I TOOK a bottle of Cot home the other day to share with a friend and his reaction got me thinking about the subject matter for this week's column, so here’s to wines and blends you may not have come across.

IT’S almost time for the last supper. Though not quite. Another 24 hours will have to pass before the concluding morsel is munched, the final nibble on the edge of no more. After that, a little part of Scotland’s living history will die.

Inexpensive tablets can make great ebook readers, video players, or web browsers, and some of our top picks are well below the $100 mark. Here's how to find the right balance of price and features.

Organize your phone, tablet, and computer with these quick and easy tips from productivity expert Jill Duffy. Investing just a little time here at the beginning of the year could make a big difference for all of 2020.

The sixth-generation 9.7-inch iPad with 128GB of storage and cellular connectivity would normally set you back $559, but is currently marked down to just $349.

The 64GB Wi-Fi model is currently on sale for $459 at Walmart (down from $499.99).