THE CHANGING nature of high street spending was dramatically underlined yesterday by the contrasting fortunes of two clothing retailers. Matalan, the discount retailer announced soaring profits and an aggressive expansion plan, while Monsoon, the upmarket women's fashion group, reported its first profits fall in13 years.

The Government had advised us not to look at the eclipse at all, except, perhaps - and only under the strictest supervision - on the telly. This was still considerably too risky for me (the Government has been known to get it wrong before, after all), and so I decided that the only really safe way to experience the eclipse was to listen to it on the radio.

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The Periodic Table

MONSOON looked over-priced when it limped on to the stock market last year, and so it has proved. Shares in the women's fashion retailer have now lost three-quarters of their value since the float last February.

MONSOON, the underperforming women's fashion retailer chaired by Peter Simon, reported its first fall in profits for 13 years yesterday alongside a poor Christmas trading statement which showed sales declines accelerating, writes Nigel Cope.

MONSOON, the chain of women's clothes shops, yesterday became the latest retailer to warn of tough times on the high street. Peter Simon, chairman, told a shareholders' meeting that despite a modest rise in sales in September, "difficult trading conditions persist".

IT'S BEEN so wet even the dogs have been watching too much telly and playing video games. I gave up worrying about the kids wasting their childhood in front of a screen when we all spent a Saturday afternoon indoors watching a 1956 Tony Curtis movie and reading seed catalogues. All the usual pleasures of this time of year have been rained off. Blackberries are too mouldy to pick, garden bonfires too soggy to burn, and the field with the best mushroom crops is under two inches of water. All the little house repairs I never did because the summer was so wet are taunting me now. The damp patch at the back of the living room cupboard is spreading and the blocked guttering outside our bedroom wakes me every night as the British monsoon pours out of it as if Gene Kelly were waiting underneath.

BANGLADESH'S catastrophic floods worsened over the weekend, with monsoon rains adding to the swollen rivers and abnormally high tides in the Bay of Bengal preventing floodwater from running off. The death toll continued to rise: more than 100 evacuees were feared drowned when a boat taking them to safety sank 255km (158 miles) north of Dhaka. At least 700 have died so far.

News Analysis: Monsoon shares have halved since the company came to the market in February. Is this just part of the general gloom in retailing or is it something more?

BANGLADESH appealed yesterday for international help to deal with a devastating flood that has caused 550 deaths and disrupted the lives of 20 million people. The cabinet of the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina Wajed, asked for assistance to cope with the damage, estimated at $220m (pounds 139.2m).

To novelists, hotels mean the world in miniature - and Shusha Guppy enjoys her stay in the Himalayan heartlands

GRISLY goings-on at Gorak Shep, the huddle of dingy lodges that passes as the last outpost of civilisation before Base Camp.

Emma Dowson boarded a packed train in Vietnam and ran straight into a typhoon. In the process she learnt what happens when communism meets capitalism