An 18-year-old was today jailed for a total of seven years for attacking a Malaysian student during the London riots and other offences.

The cover to Late Late Party, a snapshot of Packy Axton, Don Nix and Steve Cropper looking sharp and bequiffed outside Satellite Records in Memphis in March 1961, packs a powerful nostalgic punch.

I have recruited two shares to the no pain, no pain portfolio. They are Northern Petroleum, an oil and gas group, and the Spirit Pub Company, the chain that arrived on the stock market following a demerger from the struggling Punch Taverns. With the departure of Clarity Commerce Solutions and Lighthouse, my little share exercise was reduced to a dozen constituents.

The widower of reality TV star Jade Goody today admitted assaulting a man outside a nightclub.

The debt-laden pub operator Punch Taverns has confirmed plans to shunt its Chef & Brewer and Fayre & Square branded pubs into a new managed pub business.

On her last visit to London, 19 years ago, Rita Rudner appeared in the Royal Variety Show at the Dominion Theatre. Tonight, she played the more modest, 420-seater, Leicester Square Theatre. However, the American has not lost her lustre and in-between time has become Las Vegas's most successful comedians.

Can he pull a decent pint?

When I am first called by this magazine and asked to attend a couple of "You Can Do It" DIY classes at B&Q I say: "No, but thanks for thinking of me. I am always thinking of you. Bye, now".

The Labor government of Australia's largest and most populous state is facing an epic defeat tomorrow after 16 years in power, following a string of scandals possibly unrivalled in the Western world.

Punch Taverns has unveiled a radical plan to sell off up to 2,650 pubs over the next five years and split the debt-laden group into two listed companies, one for managed and one for leased pubs.