Police are trying to identify a man whose body was washed up on an East Sussex beach.
Sussex Police said the body was discovered near the pier in Hastings at about 07:30 BST on Sunday.
Detectives believe the man had been in the water for up to 24 hours and have appealed for information.
Det Insp Andy Harbour said: "The man, who we believe is in his 20s, was found washed up on the beach. We are treating his death as unexplained."
He added: "We are doing all we can to identify him. He has short dark brown hair, is about 5ft 7ins and was wearing a shiny black jacket and stonewashed jeans.
"In his pocket were keys to a Renault car.
"I would appeal to anyone who recognises him or has any information to contact police."
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Queen Elizabeth joins giant jubilee flotilla in London - msnbc.com
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Queen Elizabeth joined an armada of 1,000 boats down London's River Thames to the pealing of bells on Sunday in a spectacular highlight of four days of nationwide celebrations to mark her 60th year on the throne.
Hundreds of thousands of cheering people waving "Union Jack" flags and dressed in red, white and blue braved the wind and rain to pack the 7-mile route for one of the largest flotillas ever seen on the river.
The queen, wearing a silver and white dress with a matching coat, smiled broadly and waved to large crowds before boarding the gilded royal barge, "The Spirit of Chartwell", alongside her 90-year-old husband Prince Philip.
Other members of the royal family on the barge included heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, his eldest son Prince William and new wife Kate, a global fashion trendsetter who wore a vivid red Alexander McQueen dress and matching hat.
Up and down the country, millions of people were due to attend diamond jubilee street parties over the long holiday weekend in honour of the 86-year-old, the only British monarch after Queen Victoria to have sat on the throne for 60 years.
Leisure cruisers, rowing boats, yachts and canoes made up the colourful Thames armada that also featured vessels from the 1940 evacuation of British and Allied troops from Dunkirk in northern France - a famous rescue performed by crafts of all shapes and sizes and a celebrated piece of British history.
A typically inclement British summer's day failed to dampen enthusiasm, with boisterous crowds massed along the banks of the Thames, watching giant TV screens showing black-and-white images of the queen from her childhood.
"We're English, we know what the weather is like. We really don't care if we get wet you know - it's the jubilee, it's the queen, so it's nice to come up and celebrate it," said Jackie, a 39-year-old sales consultant who travelled across southern England to watch the event.
Organisers say Sunday's river pageant is the largest of its kind in 350 years since a similar spectacle was held for King Charles II and his consort Catherine of Braganza in 1662.
CHURCHILL AND EISENHOWER
Other vessels in the flotilla include Motor Torpedo Boat 102 on which Allied Forces commander General Dwight Eisenhower and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill inspected warships before the 1944 D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France.
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It travels under 14 bridges and past landmarks including the Houses of Parliament, St Paul's Cathedral, and the Tower of London.
"There haven't been pageants like this on the River Thames for 300 years and that makes it extremely special," said Peter Warwick on board "The Macaret" launch with the flotilla. "You look at the river banks and they are packed with people."
Another boat taking part, "Amazon", featured in diamond jubilee celebrations for Queen Victoria, Elizabeth's great-great-grandmother, held in 1897 when Britain's empire spanned much of the globe.
Although the queen is still head of state in 16 countries from Australia and Canada to tiny Tuvalu in the Pacific Ocean and head of the Commonwealth, Britain is a shadow of its former imperial self.
Historians and commentators say the pomp and spectacle of British royal occasions gives the country a sense of national pride at a time when the economy is in recession and people face deep austerity measures.
STREET PARTIES
Across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, street parties were being held to mark the occasion. Prince Charles and his wife Camilla dropped into one in central London before the pageant, joining in a rousing rendition of the national anthem.
While the queen and the royal party braved the elements under a golden canopy on a barge in the middle of the Thames, the wet conditions proved too much for Prime Minister David Cameron, who moved his Downing Street party indoors.
That said, the government hoped the festivities would mark the start of a summer of revelry capped off by the Olympic Games in London, raising the public's spirits and their poll ratings.
"What is great is that we have the jubilee and then the Olympics. We should show how great we are in Britain," said Joanne Richmond, 61, from central England, who was in London for the queen's coronation as a two-year-old.
However, economists have warned that the extra public holidays will hit Britain's already ailing economy, potentially prolonging a recession.
The celebrations come as polls show the overwhelming backing for the monarchy, which has overcome a slump in the 1990s following marital infidelities and the death of the hugely popular Princess Diana in a 1997 Paris car crash
However, not everyone in London will be cheering. The small yet vocal republican movement plans a protest during the flotilla, saying the jubilee was "a celebration of inherited power and privilege, and those celebrations have no place in a modern democracy".
But even they acknowledge there is almost no chance that the queen will be ousted and take solace in indications many Britons are simply indifferent -- 2 million people are leaving the country to take advantage of the extended public holiday.
Celebrations will continue on Monday with a pop concert outside Elizabeth's London residence Buckingham Palace and conclude with a service of thanksgiving at St. Paul's Cathedral on Tuesday followed by a carriage procession.
(Additional reporting by Jeremy Gaunt, Philip Baillie and Ethan Bilby, editing by Paul Casciato)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
Source: www.msnbc.msn.com
London 2012: Mo Farah impresses at Diamond League in Eugene - The Sport Review
Mo Farah may be undecided about whether he will look to secure a world and Olympic double over 5,000m – but his current form is certainly encouraging.
Farah says his London 2012 focus is trained firmly on the 10,000m, with heats of the 5,000m following several days later on the Games schedule.
However, he clocked a world-leading and meeting record 12:56.98 to win over the distance at the IAAF Diamond League in Eugene.
Farah, who won the Bupa 10,000 in London last weekend, kicked clear of Kenya’s Isaiah Koech and American training partner Galen Rupp to claim victory.
Elsewhere, Shara Proctor produced a personal best 6.84 metre leap to win the women’s long jump.
Anguillan-born Proctor, who won her first senior medal for Britain with a bronze at the World Indoors, is now just six centimetres short of Bev Finch’s 29-year old British record, set at the first-ever World Championships in Helsinki.
While British rising stars Lawrence Clarke and Andy Pozzi are impressing over 110m hurdles this season, world bronze medallist Andy Turner is still struggling.
Turner, who has admitted his Olympic dream may be shattered by an untimely recurrence of a tendon injury, finished last in Eugene in 13.46 seconds. 
© Sportsbeat 2012
Source: www.thesportreview.com
Why are the French getting an 'MP for London'? - BBC News
French citizens in the UK will for the first time be able to vote for an MP, with the creation of a Northern Europe constituency in the French parliament. What role will London play?
London is home to the majority of the vibrant UK French population for whom the capital is not just a city of transit.
They will soon be represented by a new French MP for the recently established Northern Europe constituency comprising the UK, Ireland, Scandinavia and the Baltic states.
It is difficult to measure the exact number of French people living in the British capital. Over 120,000 are officially registered at the French consulates in London and Edinburgh, but not everybody decides to register and other London estimates put the French population at anywhere between 300,000 and 400,000 citizens.
London could hold the key to victory for any candidate as it has the largest concentration of French people across the whole constituency.
"All of the main parties have chosen candidates based in London," says Philippe Marliere, professor of French and European politics at University College London.
"It's going to be a London contest."
Of the 20 official candidates for the seat, nine are based in London, and a further three live in other regions of the UK.
'Key issue'Although the French have long had a tradition of MPs from their overseas territories, this is the first time France will allow elected MPs for its expat population to have a seat in parliament.
The decision to create new constituencies for the French abroad was taken by former president Nicolas Sarkozy, whose government passed legislation in 2008 to give them the right to elect their own MPs.
Prof Marliere argues this can be seen a political move by the right to boost votes. Traditionally, the French abroad are less likely to support the left, even if the gap is narrowing in the UK.
Statistics from the French Ministry of the Interior show that the majority (53.05%) of overseas French citizens voted for right-wing candidate Mr Sarkozy in the 2012 presidential election.
But French people in the UK bucked this trend for the first time by voting for Socialist candidate Francois Hollande - though Mr Sarkozy won almost 52% of the second round vote in London.
Party politics aside, Prof Marliere says there are more and more French people living abroad. They can encounter problems with the education, pension, tax, social welfare and health systems in their host country, issues that an expat MP could help them with.
Candidates for Northern Europe constituency
- Axelle Lemaire, Socialist Party (London)
- Emmanuelle Savarit, UMP party (London)
- Yannick Naud, Democratic Movement (London)
- Will Mael Nyamat, independent (London)
- Olivier Bertin, Green Party (London)
- Olivier Cadic, Centrist Alliance (London)
- Denys Dhiver, supported by the Christian Democratic Party and France Ecologie (Leicester, UK)
- Gaspard Koenig, Liberal Democratic (London)
- Guy Le Guezennec, National Front (Kent, UK)
- Jerome de Lavenere Lussan, independent (London)
- Marie-Claire Sparrow, Gathering of French residents overseas (Essex, UK)
- Bertrand Larmoyer, independent liberal (London)
- Aberzack Boulariah, independent (Ireland)
- Olivier de Chazeaux, supported by the Radical Party, New Centre, and Republican, Ecologist and Social Alliance (Paris)
- Lucile Jamet, Left Front
- Patrick Kaboza, independent candidate (Riga, Latvia)
- Ezella Sahraoui, Radical Party of the Left (Lille, France)
- Christophe Schermesser, European Federalist Party (Finland)
- Edith Tixier, Solidarity and Progress party
- Anne-Marie Wolfson, independent (Paris)
This is reflected in the official manifestos of the candidates, which also mention the challenges faced by French people abroad in business.
But Prof Marliere says that the "key issue" for the UK-based candidates is education, as French families are keen to send their children to French schools.
Providing a French education for their children can be costly for parents and French-speaking schools are oversubscribed.
Because of this, the French embassy, teachers and parents have been working to deal with the shortage of places, opening a new school in Kentish Town, London, last September, says Frederique Brisset, headmistress of L'Ecole des Petits and L'Ecole de Battersea.
"The choice of French schools is limited and there are fundamental differences between the French curriculum and the British curriculum."
"French schools are not free," says Prof Marliere. "Although the French state subsidises education by sending French teachers, the rest is not paid for by the state."
This issue is not going away as within the UK, the make-up of the French community is changing. It is getting younger, and therefore more likely to have children.
In addition to those working in the financial sector and employed by international companies, the UK's French population now includes "students, people in the service industries, public servants and young families", says Prof Marliere.
French LondonersClelia-Elsa Froguel, a 26-year-old consultant born in France, is part of this younger generation.
She says the creation of an expat MP enables the voices of French emigrants to be heard in the French parliament.
"We are French Londoners, not expats," she says. "The election of an MP for us is extremely important."
While she can vote in the French presidential elections, up until now she did not vote in the French parliamentary elections because she felt she was "not represented."
And David Medioni, a political journalist based in Paris, points out that French people in France view it as "normal" that expats should have some political say.
'More and more British'But others are less than enthusiastic about the idea, arguing that the MP will have little impact as the French abroad are not the government's priority.
Prof Marliere says it is difficult to see how the French abroad can place demands on the government, as many do not pay taxes in France.
He asks: "Why would the government in France supplement our life choices?"
And Muriel Demarcus, a 39-year-old business owner, says the introduction of an expat French MP is unlikely to change anything.
"After four or five years you turn a corner and you become more and more British. I don't think we are French any more."
The successful candidate will sit in the French National Assembly in Paris and will have the same duties as any other French MP, representing a vast constituency stretching across 1.5m sq miles (4m sq km).
Prof Marliere expects that the elected representative will divide their time between the French capital and their home country, making frequent trips to other regions.
Although the figures are disputed, the London population has grown so big that it is sometimes referred to as France's sixth city. Because of this, French people in other European countries, such as 22-year-old Maite Delvarre from Stockholm, say that the views of non-UK based constituents won't be heard.
"The culture in the UK and the Nordic countries is not the same. That's why we need somebody else here."
Even for experts like Prof Marliere, the outcome of the election is difficult to predict.
"It's totally new. Nobody knows what is going to happen."
Registered French citizens in the Northern Europe constituency |
||
|---|---|---|
| Country | French Consulate* | Electoral List** |
|
*As of 31 December 2011, **As of 29 Feb 2012 |
||
|
Denmark |
5,214 |
3,450 |
|
Estonia |
182 |
126 |
|
Finland |
2,569 |
1,596 |
|
Ireland |
8,881 |
5,799 |
|
Iceland |
341 |
244 |
|
Latvia |
193 |
123 |
|
Lithuania |
379 |
215 |
|
Norway |
5,034 |
3,337 |
|
UK |
123,306 |
80,750 |
|
Sweden |
6,329 |
4,312 |
|
The actual number of French people living in these countries is estimated to be significantly higher. |
||
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
London Symphony Orchestra miming at London Olympics Opening Ceremony - Examiner
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Source: www.examiner.com
London Olympics: James Bond star Daniel Craig to abseil into stadium as part of opening ceremony - Daily Record
Source: www.dailyrecord.co.uk
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