London  - A two-day sale of art work by contemporary British artist Damien Hirst Tuesday set a new record for an auction dedicated to one artist by raising 111 million pounds (198 million dollars), auction house Sotheby's in London said.

The result broke all pre-sale estimates and is a triumph for 43-year-old Hirst, who this week became the first leading artist ever to sell works directly at auction, cutting out the middlemen.

London  - A two-day sale of art work by contemporary British artist Damien Hirst Tuesday set a new record for an auction dedicated to one artist by raising 111 million pounds (198 million dollars), auction house Sotheby's in London said.

The result broke all pre-sale estimates and is a triumph for 43-year-old Hirst, who became the first leading artist ever to sell works directly at auction, cutting out the middlemen.

London - Britain's annual rate of inflation rose to 4.7 per cent in August, its highest level since records began in 1997, the Office for National Statistics said Tuesday.

London, Sept. 16: About 40 retired Gurkhas took part in a protest demonstration outside British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s 10, Downing Street official residence on Monday to protest a government decision that does not entitle them to British settlement rights.

According to The Times, the government has also said that some Gurkhas “lack strong ties with the country”.

Gyanraj Rai, 50, a former sergeant major in the Gurkha Army, who now lives in Reading, said that he was “really very unhappy” during his time as a Gurkha as he did not get rights equal to that of his British comrades.

London, Sept. 16: A former Saudi diplomat-turned cleric, Sheikh Muhammad Munajid, has described Walt Disney cartoon character Mickey Mouse as "one of Satan''s soldiers" who turns everything around it impure.

The cleric, who worked with the Saudi embassy in Washington D C, said that under Sharia, both household mice and their cartoon counterparts must be killed.

London - Works by contemporary British artist Damien Hirst sold directly at auction fetched a total of 70 million pounds (120 million dollars) at Sotheby's Monday in London, the auction house said.

Highlight among the works snapped up by bidders from around the world was The Golden Calf, a bullock preserved in formaldehyde with a golden disc on its head and hooves and horns cast in 18-carat solid gold, which fetched 10.3 million pounds.

Hirst, 43, has said he wants to prove in the two-day groundbreaking auction that artists can sell their work without galleries and middlemen taking a 50-per-cent commission.