Scotland's papers: May's union 'fightback' and rates reprieve

Almost 10,000 businesses across Scotland are to be spared crippling rate rises after the SNP government "bowed to pressure" and unveiled a £45m package of support, according to The Herald.

The i newspaper puts the figure at 8,500 and says hotels, restaurants, cafés and pubs across Scotland facing big increases to their business rates have been handed an 11th-hour reprieve.

The Scottish Daily Mail says the Scottish government performed a U-turn on the issue of business rates - but then went on to pass tax measures that would hit middle earners.

Theresa May has told her ministers to go out and drive home the case for the union amid mounting speculation that a second referendum on Scottish independence could be called within weeks, reports The Scotsman.

The Scottish Daily Express claims that Theresa May has "ordered" every minister in her Cabinet to play their part in "preventing Nicola Sturgeon from breaking up Britain".

An independent Scotland could succeed in staying in the European Union, according to a constitutional expert quoted in The National.

Meanwhile, British workers will not be ready to fill the jobs done by European migrants for "years and years", Brexit Secretary David Davis has told The Times.

The Daily Record claims that an ex-Scottish Football Association coach has "bragged" about "raking in thousands" from music lovers as a ticket tout.

The Scottish Sun says a prisoner serving eight years for attempted murder failed to return to Castle Huntly open jail after a home visit to Clydebank..

Madeleine McCann "went searching for her parents at a nearby tapas bar" the night she went missing, a former detective is reported as saying in the Daily Star of Scotland.

The Courier leads with the story of a Tayside sex offender who was reported to the police by his own father after having sex with a 14-year-old girl.