A stowaway who died yesterday after jumping into the English Channel may have been an asylum seeker who mistakenly thought he was on a boat to Britain, coastguards said last night.

In fact, the container ship was heading from Belgium towards the French port of Le Havre.

The man, from the Ivory Coast, was put into the ship's jail after he was discovered by the crew shortly after the ship left Antwerp. He escaped and jumped ship in an apparent attempt to swim to the English coast.

baltic honoured: The Baltic centre, Gateshead, and Whitby Abbey's Visitor Centre were among a record 70 buildings across Britain and Europe last night to win awards, from the Royal Institute of British Architects.

cheapest pint: The North-West is the cheapest place in Britain to buy a pint, according to a survey by the Campaign for Real Ale. A pint of real ale in that region costs about £1.75 with lager at £1.98, compared to national averages of £1.98 and £2.17.

labour mp dies: Paul Daisley, Labour MP for Brent East, has died at the age of 45, it was announced yesterday. Mr Daisley, who was elected to London mayor Ken Livingstone's former seat in 2001, had been fighting cancer.

'spam' battle: Microsoft has launched 15 lawsuits against alleged e-mail "spammers" in the US and Britain. The defendants are accused of flooding Microsoft's computer systems and its customers with more than two billion unsolicited junk e-mails.

heir captured: Max Factor heir Andrew Luster, who disappeared before he was convicted of rape in California and jailed for 124 years, was captured in Mexico yesterday. Luster is the great-grandson of the cosmetics legend.

shop crime down: Losses to shopkeepers from retail crime fell by an estimated £100m in the past year, according to the British Retail Consortium, thanks to investment in crime prevention.

nuke warning: North Korea acknowledged yesterday that it has a nuclear weapons programme - and warned it would never give it up without US concessions.

woman boxer dies: A mother of two has died in Florida after being pummelled in an amateur boxing match, and police opened an investigation into the fight.