London - Britain's leading Marks & Spencer fashion and food retail chain Tuesday reported a 34-per-cent drop in half-yearly profits and warned that 2009 would be a "tough year."

Profits fell to 297.8 million pounds (470.5 million dollars) in the six months up to the end of September, the company said. It had earlier reported a 5.7-per cent drop in sales during that period.

London, Nov. 4 : American billionaire Donald Trump’s contentious plans to transform a wild and windswept stretch of the Aberdeenshire coastline into an exclusive one billion pound golf resort have been approved by the Scottish government, but left wildlife groups fuming with anger.

Environmentalists have condemned the Scotland National Party (SNP) administration for its “wanton vandalism” of an unspoilt natural habitat.

London, Nov 4 : Naomi Millbank-Smith has been chosen as the host for this year’s Urban Music Awards, and she just can’t wait for it to happen.

Millbank-Smith, 23, who had found fame on Channel 4 show Shipwrecked, will be presenting the sixth annual ceremony at London''s IndigO2 on November 15.

“There''s a lot of pressure to do it alone with no co-host, but I can''t wait,” the Sun quoted her as saying.

She will be introducing the likes of Sienna Miller and DJ Ironik to the stage as they present prizes to winners.

London, Nov 4 : In a bizarre incident that has been described as a Wild West-style “saloon bar brawl”, a priest and two nuns were seen attacking an Italian restaurant owner.

The fight witnessed by passers-by started over an argument over the lease on the restaurant, owned by the Catholic Church.

The 49-year-old owner revealed that he had rushed to the eatery, in the village of Rutino near Salerno, in southern Italy, after hearing that the priest and nuns were causing trouble.

The fight resulted in the owner getting into an argument with the priest, who smashed a chair over his head, and the nuns joining in with kicks to his stomach.

London, November 4 : An English postman who fell from the terrace of a pub after going out for a cigarette, and slipped into coma for a week, has now moved the court seeking one million pounds as compensation.

Matthew Long, 40, contends that the Old West Station pub in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, should have put up rails to stop customers, who were forced to go outside for a cigarette due to the smoking ban, from falling.

His lawyers claim that the pub was negligent in that it encouraged the use of the platform as a smoking area by providing chairs, tables and ashtrays without putting up any warning signs.

The incident took place in August last year, a month after the smoking ban came into force.

London, November 4 : ''''Simply Red'''' frontman Mick Hucknall is selling a signed pair of David Beckham''''s football boots at an auction – and is prepared to make a loss of 24,000 pounds.

The singer, who had bought the boots for 29,000 pounds at the ace footballer’s garden party before the 2002 World Cup, was told that they were expected to fetch only 3,000 to 5,000 pounds at the sale.

The red and white Adidas boots are embroidered with ‘No. 7 Beckham’ and bare the name of Beckham’s first son, Brooklyn, on the tongue.

They are signed as: “To Mick, Best Wishes, David Beckham 7.”