But underlying profits - which strip out currency effects and exceptional items - were up 33%, while revenues grew 10%.

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Earnings before interest and taxes fell 70%, to 27.3 million pounds, 15 million pounds short of interest expenses (before exceptional items).

FORBES: Manchester United Still Financially Solid

He sold many of the pieces he acquired through the family business but held on to some of the more exceptional items for his personal collection.

BBC: Entertainment & Arts

"Banks had a better performance year in 2012 but their improved core profits were eaten up by fines and other exceptional items, leaving them down on 2011, " said Bill Michael of KPMG.

BBC: Skyline of Canary Wharf in London

The group chief executive, Roger Lewis, said the Union had taken the decision to pay a number of exceptional items, such as accepting that some debts owed to them were unlikely to be paid off.

BBC: No changes at the top - Pickering

Morelli shared with Travelwise a few bargaining techniques that have landed her exceptional deals on unique items around the world - from 19th-century apothecary jars in Sicily to a hand-carved walnut armoire in provincial France.

BBC: The art of haggling

Among the items in the first category are more than a dozen Koran folios, all with exceptional calligraphy.

ECONOMIST: Works of art from the Aga Khan's collection on show in London