Zingy pink, lime green, violet and neon dominate the fashion and design palettes this season. Trish Lorenz speaks to top blogger Holly Beck to find out how to use them at home

Thanks to Nigel, I spent the evening recalling happy memories of confectionery cravings

From flash sales to high-end boutiques, Britain's online design shops are booming. Trish Lorenz favourites her top bookmarks in time for Christmas

View From The Sofa: Match of the Day BBC 1

A ten-year-old boy who used a snub-nosed revolver to shoot his neo-Nazi father in the head "thought that what he was doing was right," and therefore "cannot be held responsible" for the crime of murder, his attorneys have claimed.

EcoCamp Chile

More of us are working from home than ever before, but it doesn't have to mean documents on the dining table or conference calls over the cornflakes.

A young man who raped and killed a frail woman in her sheltered home was jailed for more than 12 years today.

Runner Martyn Rooney has said he will make his Olympic performance count a year after rioters devastated his local borough of Croydon. 

Torrential rains dropped nearly a foot of water on a Black Sea region in southern Russia overnight, setting off intense flooding that killed at least 78 people and forced some in the largely rural area to take refuge in trees and on roofs, officials said today.

So, given the choice, men prefer doing most of the housework. Who knew? According to researchers from Cambridge, using a survey of 30,000 households, chaps find that home life is a lot smoother if they do the cooking, washing, cleaning and shopping. Rather than letting their grumbling other halves do it.

Notebook

A man accused of having sex with his ex-wife's bull mastiff dog has told a court the allegation is a “total lie”.

In the olden days, we are told, people – specifically, girls – sat by the phone willing it to ring. Thankfully, in this era of on-the-go eterno-contact, you needn't sit at home to do this. Instead, you can do all manner of adventurous and distracting things while you will your phone to ring.