Barack Obama Speaks in Normandy

Seventy years after Allied troops stormed the beaches at Normandy, US president Barack Obama has paid tribute to a "powerful manifestation of America's commitment to human freedom" that lives on in a new generation.

During a ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, Mr Obama said: "Our commitment to liberty, our claim to equality, our claim to freedom and to the inherent dignity of every human being - that claim is written in the blood on these beaches, and it will endure for eternity."

In bright sunshine, Mr Obama joined other world leaders on the 70th anniversary of D-Day, June 6 1944, on the site he referred to as "democracy's beachhead".