London

LONDON -- Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the powerful former ambassador to the United States who has been one of the Bush administration's strongest allies in the Middle East, was publicly linked to a widening corruption scandal yesterday with reports that a British aerospace company secretly paid up to $2 billion into bank accounts at the Saudi embassy in Washington. The new allegations point directly at Bandar, son of the Saudi crown prince and a man who has been a key ally for both the current President Bush and his father.

Donald Gansauer of Baltimore wonders: "Has Eurasia experienced the same warm winter as we have so far?" Heck, Colorado hasn't had the mild winter we've had. But there has been mild weather from balmy London (50s) across snowless Europe to Siberia. The Sun's Moscow correspondent, Erika Niedowski, reports rain - in January! "This morning, I went running in the park, where there is green grass. Everyone hates it. Russians LOVE the winter ... and Moscow is much prettier when there is snow, until it turns black," she said.

LOS ANGELES -- Richard Rogers, an Italian-born Englishman who wields political influence as a liberal member of Britain's House of Lords and the unpaid chief of the London city government's Architecture and Urbanism Unit, was named the winner yesterday of the 2007 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the profession's leading award. Rogers' signature buildings over the past 30 years include heralded temples to art (the Pompidou Center museum in Paris, co-designed with Renzo Piano), commerce (the Lloyd's of London insurance tower)

London -- Three men were arrested yesterday in connection with the July 2005 explosions on the London transit system that marked suicide terrorism's deadly debut in Western Europe. British police did not say what role the men are believed to have played in the bombings, which killed 52 people. Officials described the arrests as part of a "painstaking investigation" aimed at learning the true scope of the attacks. A series of searches was being carried out in east London and in the northern English city of Leeds.

Lions (4-2) @ Bears (3-4) -- The Lions appear to be the only team in position to challenge the Packers in the NFC North. Giants (5-2) vs. Dolphins (0-7) in London -- NFL commissioner Roger Goodell would like to send a Super Bowl to London someday, but this mismatch may persuade the Brits to stick with their brand of football.

LONDON -- For the British, there is no escaping the euro, the new single European currency that fuels the neighborhood's new economic colossus.As euro trading unfolds today, Britain prepares for life next to Euroland, the 11-nation block of euro founders led by Germany and France. Britain is the most prominent of the European Union's four euro outsiders and is poised to protect its financial turf.Throughout the holiday weekend, the square-mile City of London financial district buzzed with activity, as banks and international investment firms set up "war rooms" and "command centers" to prepare for the euro.

LONDON -- She sold more books in a single day at Harrods than Margaret Thatcher and drew more media than Cher. She was none other than "that woman," Monica Lewinsky.The White House intern who nearly brought down Bill Clinton's presidency yesterday began the first day of the rest of her life as an international celebrity.And it was lights, cameras, near-chaos as Lewinsky posed for the media and signed copies of her book, "Monica's Story," at Harrods, one of the world's best-known department stores.

LONDON -- Peter Stringfellow sits stage-side as 60 of his lingerie-wearing, stiletto-stomping, hair-tossing, breast-heaving Angels strut their stuff.There are blondes, bottle blondes, brunettes and redheads. There are tall ones, short ones and in-between ones, all taut-skinned, perfume-scented, made up to drive a roomful of sharp-dressed businessmen wild. To say that the 300 or so men around Stringfellow are excited would be an understatement. Cigars go unlit and champagne remains untouched as the parade of women passes down the runway to cheers and smiles.

LONDON -- A 33-year-old man known to his Liverpool neighbors as "Mad Mick" was being held by police last night in the knife attack that left former Beatle George Harrison hospitalized in stable condition with an inch-deep stab wound to his chest.Harrison's life may have been saved by his wife, who reportedly clubbed the assailant on the head with a lamp.The suspect, identified in media reports as Michael Abram, an unemployed father of two, was described by his mother as having a history of mental health problems and drug addiction.

LONDON -- Every spring about this time the popular British historian Paul Johnson holds a garden party at his London home. At this year's party -- like all of his parties -- the mix of politicians, intellectuals and business people is unlike anything one would come upon in the United States. Political Correctitude is not yet a religion here.At Mr. Johnson's party, there are apt to be people from the left such as the playwright Harold Pinter and Lord and Lady Longford. They are now war resisters.

LONDON -A pleasant late-August Sunday, bright and breezy, the bells of St. Paul's ringing wildly for 11:30 Sung Eucharist, like a sacred pinball machine announcing you've won 10 bonus games, the square busy with people, including Americans like me, whose business is being tourists. As the poet W.H. Davies wrote: "What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare?" It's my ideal vacation, to wander freely in a great city, no schedule, no check-off list, and on my way to church I passed the true English church, the great Smithfield Market, a grand Victorian warehouse of 1868 as large as two football fields, with a majestic dome worthy of any church, where refrigerated trucks sit idling, carrying beef, pig and lamb carcasses.

The Beatles' London: A Guide to 467 Beatles Sites Interlink Books, $20: It appears that the Beatles left their collective footprints on every inch of London. With this remarkable guide, authors Piet Schreuders, Mark Lewisohn and Adam Smith have certainly done their homework. From Soho and Islington to Chelsea and Kensington, as well as the outer regions, the guide features detailed information on where the Beatles lived and played and where some of their most well-known photographs were taken.

LONDON -Three men accused of helping suicide bombers who killed 52 people in a 2005 attack on London's transportation system were acquitted Tuesday of the most serious charges they faced, a second defeat for prosecutors in the case. The jury found Waheed Ali, Mohammed Shakil and Sadeer Saleem not guilty of carrying out a reconnaissance mission to help the four bombers who boarded three subway trains and a bus with homemade explosives on July 7, 2005. Ali and Shakil were convicted of conspiring to attend a terrorist training camp in Pakistan, a lesser charge, and were scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday.

Baltimore-based Constellation Energy Group said yesterday that it has agreed to sell most of its London-based commodities business as it continues to divest itself or wind down much of the operation that was the source of its credit troubles. Terms of the deal with an affiliate of Goldman Sachs were not disclosed. The international unit - including its coal and freight operations and European trading units - has 120 employees, nearly all based in London. Constellation is shoring up its finances and reducing its liquidity risk, while it focuses more on its traditional energy business after facing down a near bankruptcy late last year.

LONDON - If history records a sudden surge in carbon emissions yesterday, it may be due to the collective exhalation of relief and joy by the hundreds of millions - perhaps billions - of people around the globe who watched, waited and prayed for Barack Obama to be elected president of the United States. In country after country, elation at Obama's win was palpable, the hunger for a change of American leadership as strong outside the United States as in it. And there was wonderment that, in the world's most powerful democracy, a man with African roots and the middle name Hussein, an upstart fighter who took on political heavyweights, could go on to capture the highest office in the land.

California is another country. You wake up in the morning and New York is already on its first coffee, and the first scandal has broken in Washington, one more Republican crony caught with his hand in the honey pot. It all feels very far away. You wake up, your laptop is full of e-mails - but you're in California, so you don't have to reply to them. Your e-mailers imagine that you are busy attending some sort of Mayan fertility ceremony on a beach, bare-chested men whanging on little drums, dinging bells, naked children strewing blossoms in the surf, a priestess in a white caftan playing a Peruvian flute.

2012 You're up, London, in what will be known as the "What Will Michael Phelps Do Next" Games. 110 Medals won by the U.S. (10 more than China, which led the U.S. in golds, 51-36) 12 Medals won by Baltimore's Phelps, Carmelo Anthony and Katie Hoff.

LONDON - Bringing kids to London? You can take them to the typical tourist attractions - if you can stand the crowds and the expense. But you can also sample some sites that Londoners prefer, which can provide their own quiet, satisfying and more affordable delights. Here are 10 favorites, many of which are gloriously free. Benjamin Pollock's Toyshop This tiny, 300-square-foot world of enchantment on the first floor of Covent Garden Market was founded in the 1880s. It carries hundreds of toys, from small novelties to handmade collectibles.

LONDON - Did Batman attack his family? Christian Bale was arrested and released here yesterday and then denied allegations made by his mother and sister that he had assaulted them Sunday night. The arrest reportedly was delayed until after Monday night's glittering European premiere of the actor's latest Batman movie, The Dark Knight. The British press reported that Bale was accused of lashing out at his mother and sister Sunday in his suite at the downtown Dorchester hotel. Bale was questioned by police for four hours yesterday morning and released.

LONDON -- After a seven-year legal battle, Britain's Court of Appeal ruled yesterday that the British government was wrong to put an Iranian resistance group, the People's Mujahedeen of Iran, on its list of banned terrorist groups. Spokesmen for the group, which means People's Holy Warriors, said the ruling appeared to leave Britain's interior minister, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, with no further legal recourse but to lay an order before parliament striking the group from a list of more than 20 proscribed terror organizations under Britain's Terrorism Act. The court's ruling denied the government's bid to carry the appeal further, seemingly closing off recourse to Britain's supreme appellate body, the so-called Law Lords.