London 2012 Olympics: We are at the centre of the world as heads of state fly in

 
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Forty presidents, prime ministers and members of royalty were flying into Britain today to join 40 other heads of state or government attending the Olympic opening ceremony tomorrow.

More than 100 will be at the Games at some point to see their national teams compete.

Details of many of the arrivals are being kept under wraps for security reasons, but many will be arriving at Luton or Stansted as private jets and charters are banned from Heathrow during the Games.

However, those publicly to have confirmed they are coming for the Olympics include French president François Hollande, Italian president Giorgio Napolitano, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, president Mwai Kibaki of Kenya, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and members of the Swedish royal family.

US First Lady Michelle Obama will lead America’s Olympic delegation and Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is also in town. Belgian prime minister Elio Di Rupo heads a delegation which includes three ministers of sport.

Other dignitaries include the prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, Brunei’s Prince Hajri Sufri Bolkiah, Bulgarian president Rosen Plevneliev, German president Joachim Gauck, president Andris Berzins of Latvia, prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Serbian president Tomislav Nikolic. North Korea has sent Pak Myong Chol, its minister of physical culture and sports.

It emerged today that thousands of passengers changed their travel plans at the last minute because of the threatened strike by immigration workers at Heathrow airport. The action has been called off but BAA, the airport owner, has downgraded its forecast that today would be the airport busiest ever, saying that 227,000 would use the airport rather than the 244,000 expected before the strike was called. The record was set last July at 233,000. However, today will still be a record for arrivals with 125,000 passengers coming in.

Meanwhile, rolling road closures to cope with the Olympic torch relay’s journey into central London brought many areas of the city to a standstill.

The torch is due to visit nine boroughs today, finishing at Hyde Park.

Transport for London commissioner Peter Hendy said: “Traffic levels yesterday were around 13.5 per cent lower than they would normally be at this time of year, due to motorists heeding our advice about avoiding driving in central London. Londoners have yet again proved how sensible they are, and I’d like to thank them.

“Spectators [of the relay] should stay local and find a viewing point that is close to home or work. There is no point driving to see the torch as there won’t be any parking. Take public transport, walk or cycle instead.”

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