Coca-Cola is to publish details of all the scientific research it funds in the UK after an investigation by The Times uncovered that the company had spent millions of pounds to counter claims that its drinks help to cause obesity. The newspaper reported that the soft drinks giant, a major sponsor of the Olympics, the Fifa World Cup and the Rugby World Cup, has financial links to more than a dozen British scientists, including government health advisers and others who cast doubt on the commonly accepted link between sugary drinks and the obesity crisis. Coca-Cola spent millions setting up the European Hydration Institute — an apparently independent research foundation to promote hydration, which has recommended that people consume sports and soft drinks of the sort the company sells. The Times also reported that the chairman of the body’s scientific advisory board is a respected professor whose university received almost £1 million from Coca-Cola while he provided nutritional advice to leading sports bodies. It said that Coca-Cola has provided financial support, sponsorship or research funding to British organisations including UKActive, the British Nutrition Foundation, the University of Hull, Homerton University Hospital, the National Obesity Forum, the British Dietetic Association, Obesity Week 2013 and the UK Association for the Study of Obesity. Many scientists blame increased sugar consumption for Britain’

Tom Watson has apologised for saying that the former cabinet minister Leon Brittan was “close to evil” at a time when tributes were flooding in after he died early this year. Labour’s deputy leader said that he had apologised for the distress the comments caused to Lord Brittan’s relatives, but also said that it was his duty to report allegations of sexual abuse and to make sure that they were properly investigated. He also defended his decision to raise the allegations in parliament and with the Director of Public Prosecutions last year, re-opening the case as Lord Brittan battled terminal cancer. Lord Brittan died in January at 75, thinking he was still under the spotlight of suspicion, unaware that police had decided there was no evidence to support a prosecution against him for the alleged rape of a 19-year-old student in 1967. Writing in th

A teenager has accepted that his driving caused the death of a police who was killed while trying to stop his vehicle and “extended his apologies” to the officer’s family. But Clayton Williams, 18, who is charged with murder, maintains he did not intend to harm the officer while fleeing police behind the wheel of a pick-up truck taken during a burglary. PC David Phillips, 34, a father of two, died in hospital shortly after the incident in Wallasey, Merseyside, on Monday. Mr Williams appeared from HMP Altcourse via video-link at Liverpool Crown Court today where a judge decided he was not eligible for bail and he was remanded in custody until October 22. At the end of the brief hearing, his solicitor, Andrew Egerton, issued a statement which he said was on behalf of the defendant. It read: “There has understandably been a lot of media coverage in rel