Despite the dire spring weather, Irn-Bru's maker AG Barr pushed up sales in a flat soft drinks market and yesterday said it was still keen to push on with a merger with its rival Britvic.

Britvic shares fizzed up 10 per cent today as the City warmed to some decent profits and plans for cost cuts of £30 million that will see the loss of hundreds of jobs.

Ever since Sir Terry Wogan handed over the baton in 2009, there has never been any doubt that Graham Norton and the Eurovision Song Contest are a perfect match. Making his fifth appearance as BBC 1’s resident commentator – this year in the Swedish city of Malmo – Norton once again played the role of mischievous gatecrasher, taking delicious aim at the array of hopefuls, presenters and merry idiots on Saturday night.

1. Mushroom Crochet Pouf

Western lifestyles blamed as one in 20 UK adults now thought to suffer from the disease

The 42-year-old is a shareholder and has been the club's director of sports development since October

They're gross, says Eleanor Doughty, and they make you feel bad

A police detective has pleaded guilty to poisoning a colleague, a court official said.

Counter-terror teams are foiling a plot as big as the July 7 attacks every year, a senior police officer has revealed.

Sugar will be replaced with Stevia as part of Coca-Cola's anti-obesity drive

A welcome addition to Barcelona's B&Bs offers elegance and style in one of the city's oldest districts, says Sarah Gordon

As a status symbol, you might not think that something that keeps your leftovers at a steady temperature would be much cop. Sports cars are a more traditional social signifier (not least of someone trying to convince their peers that they have an enormous… amount of money), as are regular holidays and the resultant tans. But for hundreds of years, having a way to keep food cool, and thus prolong its edibility, was far more show-offy than  a supercar.

One in four British men and women are obese - and we're all paying for it

Bubbling demand for Britvic's fizzy drinks including Pepsi and 7Up in the UK helped its revenues rise 4.8 per cent to £303.2m in the three months to today.