The UK will pay its final respects to Margaret Thatcher today as friends and foes continue to row over her legacy.

President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservative party won a comfortable but smaller than expected majority in France’s parliamentary elections tonight, with it and its allies getting at least 330 of the 577 National Assembly seats.

The ageing freighter that smuggled 908 refugees into France has sunk off the Riviera, leaving the authorities facing an environmental headache.