Part way through upgrading from 13.04 to 13.10 the process ground to a halt with an error message. Now on retrying by going to 'Check for updates' I get the following:

Failed to load the package list

This is a serious problem. Try again later. If this problem appears again, please report an error to the developers.

E:Encountered a section with no Package: header, E:Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_saucy_universe_i18n_Translation-en%%5fGB, E:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

Problem reported but my question is, "what can I do now?; Do I have to do a fresh install?; if so will settings etc. in my Home folder (on its own partition) be saved?"

13.04 still seems to be working perfectly, while upgrading I had a terrible internet connection varying between 'dead slow' and 'dead stop', not sure if that caused the problem.