The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland has made an outspoken attack on the United States over the release of the Lockerbie bomber.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien said the Scottish government was right to free Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi last year on compassionate grounds.
U.S. lawmakers want Scottish politicians to explain to a Senate committee their decision to release Megrahi.
But the cardinal said ministers should not go crawling to the U.S. like lapdogs.
Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish government's justice secretary, released Megrahi, who has prostate cancer, after being told that three months was a “reasonable estimate” of his life expectancy.
Vengeance
However, he is still alive after almost a year and the decision continues to provoke anger in the United States, which was home to 189 of the Lockerbie victims.
Cardinal O'Brien said Americans were too fixed on retribution.
He said it was understandable why the families and friends of the 270 people killed on board Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 would want “justice” and “even vengeance”.
But in an article for the newspaper Scotland on Sunday, he suggested Americans should “direct their gaze inwards” rather than scrutinize how the Scottish justice system worked.
“They seem to think they have got it right, and I don't think they've got it right, and I don't think most Christians would believe they have got it right either. It's not an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. And they really should look to the beam in their own eye rather than thinking what's wrong with us.”
He added: “I think the United States government in many, many states - more than half of the states in the United States - they have a culture of vengeance.”
He backed the Scottish Government's decision not to give evidence to American senators investigating Megrahi's release.
Meanwhile, a doctor who examined the Lockerbie bomber says he could not have faked his illness.
Leading oncologist Professor Karol Sikora examined Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who has terminal prostate cancer, in prison and estimated he had about three months to live.
Megrahi is still alive, although there are no current reports on his health.
His release provoked fury in the US, where politicians are looking into claims that the release was linked to oil deals with Libya - a claim that has been denied.
“I am surprised he is still alive,” said Professor Sikora, who was asked by the Libyans to give a medical opinion on Megrahi's health prior to his release.
He said he did not believe he and other experts had been fooled.
“You take into account the type of cancer he had, and the X-ray evidence that it had spread. The blood test for PSA (prostate specific antigen) was rising - everything pointed towards the fact that he had end-stage disease.”
Former prison doctor and writer Theodore Dalrymple agreed that it would be impossible for Megrahi to fake the severity of his disease.
“There is a difficulty of knowing prognosis, with medicine not being an exact science.
“You can't say, except in very rare cases, that somebody is going to die on the 14th of April next.
“And just because someone has certain symptoms, it is not possible to say someone will die within weeks.
“The reason you are suspicious is because you suspect prisoners might have been pulling the wool over your eyes.
“With something like dementia it is possible, but I don't think is possible to act respiratory failure or cancer.”
The release of Megrahi is still causing controversy, with the U.S. Senate's Foreign Relations Committee currently investigating the circumstances behind it.
It is led by Senator Robert Menendez, who is asking for the release of all relevant medical documents.
(Source: BBC