03/06/2012 BBC Weekend News

A thousand vessels travel along the River Thames as the Queen's Diamond

Jubilee celebrations take to the water. The River pageant, in honour

of the Queen's 60-year reign, is the largest to be held in London

since the 17th century. The Royal Family were centre stage, joining

the procession on a Royal barge decorated with flowers from the

Queen's estates. Organisers say more than a million people braved

the cold and rain, lining the banks of the river. We all admire the

queen. 60 years in the same job, it deserves to be rewarded. It's quite

exciting to see her in the driver seat in the boat, it's quite

exciting, yes." Our other main story tonight: Around 150 people

are feared dead after a plane crashes in a densely populated part

Good evening. Despite the downpours organisers say more than a million

people turned out to witness the Diamond Jubilee river pageant, the

biggest spectacle on the Thames for over 300 years. Vessels of every

shape and size completed the seven mile long voyage along the river.

The Queen and her family took pride of place on the Royal Barge - The

Spirit of Chartwell - cheered on by all the well-wishers lining the

banks. Our Royal Correspondent Nicholas Witchell reports. It is

the river which has been at the heart of nation's life since London

was created and today the Thames provided the setting for this

tribute to the nation's monarch. The Queen has seen many spectacular

sights in the 60 years of her reign, but never anything quite such as

this on the Thames. A flotilla of 1,000 vessel, led on their seven-

mile passage by man-powered boats. The flagship Gloriana being helped

by the Olympic multi-gold medallist, Sir Steve Redgrave, and following

behind, gondolas from Venice and Maori canoeists from New Zealand.

The Queen was aboard a river cruiser transformed for the

occasion into a Royal Barge. Watching the pageant with her,

Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry. Other

members of the Royal Family were on other vessels, Princesses Beatrice

and Eugenie with their father, the Duke of York. Also on the river the

Middleton family, mother and father and Kate's sister, Pippa. The

flotilla swept down river. Navigating river currents which can

often be difficult and dangerous, past the Houses of Parliament and

the London Eye. Behind the man- powered vessels came boats of all

shapse and sizes with all sorts of cargoes. Among them some of the

Dunkirk little ships with their echoes of service and self-

sacrifice from the Second World War. And then something you wouldn't

really expect to see on the Thames - a horse. A wooden puppet horse to

be precise from the award-winning play War Horse on the roof of the

National Theatre. Not surprisingly this is something that caught the

Queen's eye. By now the man-powered vessels were approaching Tower

Bridge. The Royal Barge was making its way rather carefully under the

Millennium footbridge, it seemed rather a tight squeeze, as the

vessel headed on down river. It's taken nearly three years to plan

this. The weather hasn't co- operated, the rain is coming down

now. But in a funny kind of a way, it has made the whole event even

more British. People quite simply carried on regardless. You know,

we're British, we queue in the rain from 6am and stand here watching

ships go by and just to support our queen and say thank you or the

being aamazing monarch. Votes not boats. Offering a contrary view a

group of anti-monarchists, about a hundred gathered to express their

opposition to the monarchy. The weather was closing in. The

hundreds of thousands who had lined the Thames and manned the boats to

show their support and express their gratitude were getting

drenched. But there was a pageant to conclude and it was finale time.

From the river, the London Symphony Orchestra launched into a sea

shanty and before long those in the Royal party - one of whom is nearly

92 - looked a though they wanted to dance a jig! Nobody can deny that

it hadn't been quite the show that it might have been at the end, the

weather had put paid to that. But the warmth and sentiment that was

evident along the River Thames had been really real and it was on a

grand scale. The pageant kept calm and carried on and for once it

wasn't just Elizabeth The Second who reigned over us. Well London's

Battersea Park was just one of the venues where the crowds gathered to

join in the celebrations. Hundreds of people queued in the rain to get

in. Lorna Gordon spent the day with some of them as they tried to catch

a glimpse of the Queen. They queued from early and when the gates open,

first a trickle, then a rush of people, keen to secure the best

views. Chairs and blankets marking their spots. The Jubilee! It is my

third one, I have done the similar ver and gold and we will wait

another ten year and do next one. We all admire the Queen. Along the

Thames the banks and bridges taken over and then a sea of waving flags

when the Queen came into sight and cheers. Hip, hip, hooray! It was

good seeing all the gold and the guns and that. It made it look cool.

It is the first royal occasion I have been to. It must have taken 60

years to plan. Such an effort. places the crowd was ten deep.

People grabbing any vantage point they could as the boats appeared.

It is a three-day plan. We're going to go to Buckingham on Tuesday and

see it all. When I saw the Queen, I felt so excited. It is like... I

have never seen this before. It is exciting to see her in the driving

seat of the boat. It is good. Telescopes and cameras capturing

the river pageant. And for those not able to get close to the water,

there were other ways of joining in. The Queen has now passed, but there

are still hundreds of boats to go and each one gets a cheer. The

crowd enthusiastic, good natured and patriotic, an outpouring of

affection on the river lined with people joining to salute the queen.

The celebrations were not just in London, many thousands held their

own street parties across the country. More than 9,500 road

closure applications were submitted for England and Wales alone. Our

Correspondent Chris Buckler reports from the Big Jubilee Lunch in North

Yorkshire. Across the UK, it had been planned that think days bring

a nation and neighbours together. But to nark queen's Diamond Jubilee,

people had to battle. Ow -- but to mark the queen's Diamond Jubilee,

people had to bat it will weather. People haven't been put off by the

rain. People have been baking fog - - baking for weeks. 60 years ago in

York they held a street party. This couple were among the crowd then.

And six decades on, they were back in the same place in Honor hour of

the same monarch. Coming out and seeing what has gone on in the

whole country, it tells people what we're and what we do in Britain.

Here as in so many streets, there was an open invitation. This event

about the community as well as the monarchy. What do you think of the

part Ji? They're having a blast and they look like they're enjoying it.

They're a bit wet maybe! People went out of their way to make this

day feel special. In this pub in Leicestershire was relaunched as a

ship. But big lunches planned for some streets were threatened by the

weather. Not that it stopped them in Birmingham. They just moved it

indoor. We decided yesterday that the weather was going to be awful

and we needed to move in from the street to the house and

unfortunately it is my house and here we are! Others made similar

decisions. In angle sea what was to have been a beach party was held in

the village hall. Although the sun did shine in some places, including

in Scotland, where the tables were laid out for people to come

together over a Jubilee lunch. In Northern Ireland, many dressed for

the occasion. As they re-created the 50s, the decade when the Queen

came to the throne. There have been a few strange sights, but people

have gone to a huge centre to make today memorable. And the flags may

have got a bit wet, but that did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm.

People will continue to wo watch the forecast, because the long

weekend of events has only just begun. Other news now and a

passenger plane in Nigeria has crashed in a densely populated part

of the country's largest city Lagos. Around 150 people were on board.

Witnesses say they saw the plane strike a building and burst into

flames. The Nigerian President has declared three days of national

mourning. Our West Africa Correspondent Will Ross has the

latest. All that is left of the aircraft is this charred wreckage.

There were more than 150 people on board. As first feared, none

survived. It crashed in a densely pop lated area of Lagos, causing

more casualties on the ground. People reported hearing a deafening

explosion. The aircraft was coming in to land at Lagos from the

Nigerian capital Abuja. The company was owned by Danna Air. The airline

had built up a good reputation, although last month a similar

aircraft made an emergency landing in Lagos, due to a technical fault.

Nigeria does not have a good air safety record with three similar

disasters in the last decade. While the investigates here continues,

the president of Nigeria has called for throw days of national mourning.

-- three days of national mourning. David Cameron has defended his

refusal to launch an investigation into Jeremy Hunt's handling of News

Corporation's bid for BSkyB. Labour insists the Culture Secretary

breached the ministerial code, and has called for an inquiry. But

speaking on the Andrew Marr show today, the Prime Minister insisted

the Culture Secretary had acted wisely and fairly while dealing

with the bid. The advice I was given is what mattered was not what

Jeremy Hunt had said publikely or privately. But how he was going to

conduct himself during the bid. That is how we should judge him.

Did he judge this bid wisely? And he did. He took legal adds vice,

which he didn't have to and he followed that advice and did many

things not in the interests of the Murdochs and that side of things. I

think he gave a good account of himself to the inquiry and to

Parliament and I think that is the key points. A soldier from 3rd

Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment has been killed in Afghanistan. The

Ministry of Defence says he was on patrol in the Nahr-e-Saraj district

of Helmand Province and came under small arms fire. His family has

been informed. In Syria, President Bashar al-Assad says his country is

facing a war waged by external forces. Addressing parliament, he

denied his Government had anything to do with the Houla massacre in

which more than 100 people were killed, saying not even monsters

would carry out such an ugly crime. Our Middle East Correspondent, Jim

Muir, reports. His first public speech since January and since the

howl what massacre in which nearly 50 children and more than 30 women

were slaughtered. He condemned the killings. TRANSLATION: We will

remain ashamed every time we remember howl what and I hope that

the massacre will not remain engraved in the minds of the

children. But the president insisted that his forces had

nothing to do with the massacre. Like all the violence in the

country, he blamed it on armed terrorist gangs, carrying out a

foreign plot to destroy sir ya, because of its resistance to Israel.

We're facing attempts to weaken Syria and to breach its sovereignty,

killings and destruction, ignorance. There was nothing in the speech for

the peace enswroi, Kofi Annan. He is urging Bashar al-Assad to

withdraw his army now. The Americans are looking to Russia to

help persuade him. We all have to intensify our efforts to achieve a

political transition. And Russia has to be at the table helping that.

The Syrian people, want and deserve change. In Tripoli in Lebanon,

clashes between pro-and anti-Syrian fabg shuns highlighted Kofi Annan's

fears that a sectarian civil war Police investigating the death of a

15 year old girl in Liverpool have arrested a teenager on suspicion of

supplying drugs. Tributes have been paid to Rose Farley who fell ill at

a party on Friday evening and died yesterday at Alder Hey Children's

Hospital. Fiona Trott reports. Tributes for a teenager whose

sudden death has shocked at thousands of people who visited

this internet site. Rose Farley was enjoying a night out at the Social

Club on Friday. Hours later, she died in hospital. There are reports

her drink may have been laced with drugs. We're not ruling anything

out at the moment. There has been a post-mortem and the results are

pending. It will be some days before we are fully sighted on that.

But that is one line of inquiry we are looking up. A few days ago,

police in Liverpool were warning people here about a dangerous

Ecstasy tablet which was circulating the streets. They've

spoken to police in Cambridgeshire and Bournemouth about similar

sudden deaths in the past two weeks. It is not yet known if the 15-year-

old Rose Farley died from a drug she did not even know she had taken.

But it is something which is worrying parents here, and it may

encourage people to come forward with information.

There's yet more bad news for the England football team struggling

with injuries before Euro 2012. This time the defender Gary Cahill

has been ruled out of the squad just eight days before their first

game against France. The Chelsea player suffered a double fracture

of his jaw in last night's 1-0 win over Belgium. England have already

lost Gareth Barry, Frank Lampard and John Ruddy through injury. But

there's better news concerning John Terry who has been given the all-

clear following a hamstring problem. That's all from us tonight. In a