Food giant Nestle may sell its French mineral water brand Perrier after a union blocked a plan to cut almost 800 jobs.

Nestle has denied allegations of aggressive promoting, insisting that many of the claims made by protesters were “10 years out of date”.

Protesters were today expected to picket one of Britain’s top comedy awards over its sponsor’s marketing tactics.

The winner of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival’s most prestigious comedy award was today named as Gareth Marenghi.