Furniture retailer DFS has reported underlying gross sales growth of 7% for the 52 weeks to June 30.

Profit before tax for the full year is expected to be just above £50 million.

The company also announced the appointment of Mike Schmidt as chief financial officer, with immediate effect.

Mr Schmidt has been serving as interim CFO, having previously been the group's chief development officer.

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Prior to that he worked for 13 years at investment banks including UBS and Citi.

Apple has disabled the Apple Watch Walkie Talkie app after a bug was discovered which could have allowed a person to listen in to someone else's iPhone without consent.

The technology giant said there was currently no evidence of the flaw having been used but it had disabled the app as a precaution until a fix could be issued.

Walkie Talkie allows two users, each with an Apple Watch and who have accepted an invitation to chat from one another, to send audio clips back and forth using a "push to talk" button on the Watch screen - similar to a traditional walkie talkie.

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In a statement, Apple apologised for the bug, which is believed to have been flagged to the company through its own security issue reporting website.

"We were just made aware of a vulnerability related to the Walkie Talkie app on the Apple Watch and have disabled the function as we quickly fix the issue," the company said in a statement.

The chief executive of property firm Land Securities will retire next year, the company has said.

Robert Noel will continue his role until a successor has been appointed.

Mr Noel said: "Next year I will have spent 10 years at Landsec, eight as chief executive. With the business well positioned for the current market, a growing pipeline and a clear strategy for the future, it's the right time for me to move on."

Chairman Cressida Hogg said: "Under his leadership Landsec has developed iconic buildings, especially in Victoria, in the City and at Westgate in Oxford.

"We respect his decision to retire after nearly eight years as chief executive and look forward to continuing to work with him until a successor is in place."