Royal & SunAlliance offloaded its loss-making estate agency business, the third-largest in the UK, to Skipton building society yesterday in another step towards reshaping its flagging business. The purchase will make Skipton the second-largest estate agency chain in the UK, taking on RSA's Barnard Marcus, William H Brown and Fox & Sons brands, among others, and its 2,500 staff.The financial details of the deal were yesterday undisclosed at the request of RSA, but RSA's 323 estate agency branches made an operational loss of £7m last year on a turnover of about £100m. The warning saw the shares fall 63 per cent in one day."I just want to get on with my life. People always refer to the FSA investigation but I was completely exonerated and it is not fair on myself, my family or on the company that it always comes up," Mr Smith said yesterday.His successes at Winchester include Last Orders, featuring Sir Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins, and Shooting Fish with Kate Beckinsale. But Winchester has struggled to cope with the downturn in the media business and last year posted a loss of £9m.Mr Smith still owns 10 per cent of Winchester, which recently acquired a US films company, Cobalt..

Gary Smith resigned yesterday as chief executive of Winchester Entertainment, the film company that has been dogged by share dealing allegations, and said he wanted to put an end to his negative association with the company. Despite his policies bringing the country to its knees, Mr Mugabe, 79, is not giving up on power He has blamed Britain for the crisis in his country.. Many others are dropping out of school because of hunger and lack of school fees.Mr Mwonzora said the NCA would keep using public protests to call for a new constitution for Zimbabwe leading to free and fair elections and a new government for the country. They had planned to march to protest against what Mr Mwonzora described as unmitigated repression by the President, Robert Mugabe. But somehow the police had been informed and arrested demonstrators as soon as the first batch had assembled.Those arrested included the NCA's chairman, Lovemore Madhuku, who has become Mr Mugabe's chief enemy in the civic society sector. Mr Mwonzora said several NCA members were beaten as police sealed off the city centre.Zimbabwe's security laws require protesters to seek police permission before staging peaceful demonstrations. But this is never grantedand police take advantage of any notice given to block venues before demonstrators assemble.The NCA activists tried to congregate in Africa Unity Square in central Harare - the equivalent of London's Trafalgar Square.

These involve movement on issues such as policing and demilitarisation, which are likely to be viewed as concessions to republicans.But in the meantime, Mr Trimble and others involved show no signs of walking away from the search for agreement. This was illustrated by the fact that he met Sinn Fein's president, Gerry Adams, on Tuesday night, even as waves of disappointment were engulfing political circles.The prevailing sense is that what went wrong was essentially presentational rather than a problem of substance, and that the Trimble-Adams deal is still on hold and by no means defunct.Mr Trimble has already pointed the finger at General John de Chastelain, the former Canadian soldier who is the sole witness at decommissioning events.His description of the arms involved as "light, medium and heavy ordnance" was not satisfactory to the Ulster Unionist leader.The mat?el included Semtex explosive, rockets, mortars and rifles, but the general did not specifically say so in his report. Zimbabwean police arrested about 300 people in central Harare yesterday as they gathered to protest against increasing repression. The activists from the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), an alliance of civic groups seeking constitutional reform, had not forewarned the police about their protest as required under draconian security laws.Douglas Mwonzora, an NCA spokesman, said they had not told the authorities because they did not want to be dispersed before they could begin the protest, which has happened before.But the strategy failed. The committee of 11, including trade union representatives, is expected to report today but may wait several days before reaching a verdict.. Maverick MP George Galloway was today expelled from the Labour Party over his outspoken criticism of the war in Iraq. The militants have been fighting for the state's independence or merger with Pakistan since 1989, at a cost of some 63,000 lives.The highway between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad - the capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir linked tens of thousands of families before being closed in 1947, when Pakistan separated from India at independence.Khalid Mahmood, research analyst at the state-run Institute of Regional Studies in Islamabad, said: "Any move toward peace and normalisation .. is welcome Even small steps are a move forward.. Mr Sinha said that Delhi must continue in its efforts with Pakistan despite continued attacks by militants in Jammu-Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state.