Three-time Olympic sailing champion Ben Ainslie today kicked off the London 2012 Olympic torch relay, saying it was "one of the more nervous moments of my life".

Hopes were fading today for three popular fishermen missing since yesterday morning as coastguards found an object on the sea bed.

The continuing battle between Brazil’s Robert Scheidt, reigning Olympic gold medallist Iain Percy, and Britain’s top sailors ramped up another notch in Hyères today as Scheidt, with crew Bruno Prada, snatched the world championship of the Star keelboat class from Percy and crew Andrew Simpson.

Ben Ainslie was beaten into the second place by his great British rival Giles Scott at the UK national championship for the singlehanded Finn dinghy in Falmouth.

Inside a ring enforced by six ground-to air missile stations, RAF Typhoon jets will patrol the skies alongside naval helicopters carrying snipers from the Royal Marines, whose job will be to shoot down aircraft that refuse to turn back from the Olympic Park.

Nine-day training exercise will see missile practice drills and helicopter gunship flights

Communism never found a fertile breeding ground in Great Britain, perhaps because the English chopped off Charles I's head centuries before the Russians discovered revolution. The British Communist Party was one of the smallest in Europe, and yet 80 years ago, it scored an unusual and enduring victory.

Aggreko, the generators giant, will pocket £50m from providing the temporary power for 39 venues in seven different locations at this summer's Olympic Games.

An air-and-sea-rescue search for a ferry passenger who is believed to be missing overboard was suspended last night after five hours.

The passionate advocate now lectures politicians on the problem of desperate children, says Jonathan Brown

Eighteen stores in the collapsed shoe shop chain Barratts Priceless will shut before Christmas, administrators said today.

The scoreline says 0-4 but Britain’s Olympic match race trio of Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor put up a tooth and nail fight against the Americans in the world championship final.

Up to 13,500 military personnel will help provide security during next summer's Olympics – almost double the 7,000 that had been expected.

Up to 13,500 military personnel will help provide security during next summer's Olympics, it was announced today.