London

LONDON — Will and Kate who? Queen Elizabeth II is celebrating 60 years on the throne this year, and London is set to throw her a Diamond Jubilee party in June that will eclipse even last year's royal nuptials. With the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which are expected to draw nearly six million visitors between July 27 and Sept. 9, there will be more eyes trained on the city this summer than there were ogling Pippa Middleton's derriere at her sister's wedding. To start things off, the government has granted a four-day holiday weekend, June 2-5, which will be jam-packed with events in Elizabeth's honor, from a concert at Buckingham Palace to one of the largest flotillas ever assembled on the Thames.

LONDON - Violence and looting raged across London and spread to three other major British cities early today, as authorities struggled to contain the country's most serious unrest since race riots set the capital ablaze in the 1980s. In London, a third straight night of disorder saw buildings, vehicles and garbage dumps set alight, stores looted and police officers pelted with bottles and fireworks, as groups of young people rampaged through neighborhoods. It was an unwelcome reminder of London's volatility for leaders organizing the 2012 Summer Olympics in less than a year.

Not far from the center of the main trading floor of the Lloyd's of London insurance exchange is the Casualty Book, an oversize cloth-bound register in which the particulars of every shipwreck on Earth are inscribed with a quill pen. Beyond dramatizing that a lot more ships sink than you might think (five or six a week is about average), this ritual of recording is a technological gesture, one that dramatizes the institution's 17th-century roots. It expresses the fact that information is at the heart of all financial markets, although today it is more likely to come from a computer terminal than a handwritten book.

I had two days for business, and Friday and Saturday to explore a major world capital. In retrospect, I probably spent as much time reading guidebooks before I left as seeing the city once I arrived. Although two days are obviously far too little to enjoy London properly, I'm too smart to turn them down. As soon as I learned I was going to London, I bought a new guidebook (American Express Pocket Guide to London) and a fold- out laminated map (Bartholomew, available at Banana Republic)

Our family, including four children, will be in London during the week after Christmas. Can you suggest attractions that the children will be interested in? From its Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens to the lions of Trafalgar Square, London delights children of all ages, especially around Christmas. Among the seasonal attractions are holiday pantomime shows, which are nursery rhymes played out all over the country by top stars. The attractions will be detailed in the monthly Travel Planner, one of three free publications from the British Tourist Authority, 40 W. 57th St., 3d Floor, New York, N.Y. 10019, telephone 212-581-4700, that may help you. The Travel Planner for the period you'll be in London will be a combined December/January edition scheduled to come out in mid-November.

NBA commissioner David Stern said yesterday that the league likely would play regular-season games in London before the city hosts the 2012 Olympics, as a springboard to increasing the NBA's marketability in Britain. At a news conference in London, Stern also announced a joint venture with the Anschutz Entertainment Group to build about a dozen NBA-style arenas in major Chinese cities. The project was announced at the O2 Arena in London, where the New Jersey Nets and Miami Heat played a preseason game.

Charles Shaw, 76, a journalist whose colorful career spanned 55 years and included a stint with Edward R. Murrow broadcasting for CBS radio in wartime London, died Monday at Doylestown Hospital. He lived in Bucks County. Mr. Shaw's last position was as editor emeritus and feature writer for the New Hope Gazette, a weekly he joined in 1963 after a period as commentator and news director for WCAU radio and television in Philadelphia. Known for his shock of white hair and beard, Mr. Shaw never cared much for the corporate ladder.

The cars and crowds and constant thrum of London town beat down on the sorry souls of Wonderland, Michael Winterbottom's crushingly sad, beautiful film. Set in the squat council houses, grimy cafes and drab apartments of the less glamorous quadrants of the city, the film - shot with a handheld camera in a verite style that brings its characters painfully, poignantly to life - describes four days in the world of three sisters, their family, and the strangers, lovers and losers who cross their paths.

PHILADELPHIA-LONDON. TWA will resume nonstop flights from Philadelphia to London on Tuesday. The daily flights, which will depart at 6:30 p.m., are a resumption of service offered each year once the tourist season starts to warm up. British Airways, which follows a similar pattern, reinstituted its nonstop service last month. Both airlines land at Heathrow Airport. (For current fare information, see the fare chart on this page.) Phone: TWA, 800-221-2000; British Airways, 800-247-9297.

When did my dream cease to be a dream? When did I realize that my reverie had morphed into something tangible and alive? Not until the very end, when I stood in Trafalgar Square, the heart of London, did I come to grips with my fading fantasy. I stood atop the white-bleached steps and leaned against the cold stone railing in front of the National Gallery. I stared down Whitehall in the darkness, over the moaning traffic and into the face of the great clock, Big Ben, illuminating the time in the distance.

The U.S. men's eight, featuring former Drexel rower Steve Kasprzyk of Cinnaminson, beat New Zealand by four seconds on the Rotsee course in Lucerne, Switzerland, Tuesday, to win the final and earn a spot in the London Olympics. The U.S. crew led from the start and won in a time of 5 minutes, 36.11 seconds, with New Zealand second in 5:40.02. France was third in 5:46.35. The U.S.'s women's double sculls, and lightweight men's four also won places in the London Games. Sarah Trowbridge and Margot Shumway dominated the finals of the double sculls to finish more than a second ahead of the Netherlands in 7:03.96.

LONDON — Will and Kate who? Queen Elizabeth II is celebrating 60 years on the throne this year, and London is set to throw her a Diamond Jubilee party in June that will eclipse even last year's royal nuptials. With the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which are expected to draw nearly six million visitors between July 27 and Sept. 9, there will be more eyes trained on the city this summer than there were ogling Pippa Middleton's derriere at her sister's wedding. To start things off, the government has granted a four-day holiday weekend, June 2-5, which will be jam-packed with events in Elizabeth's honor, from a concert at Buckingham Palace to one of the largest flotillas ever assembled on the Thames.

It's nearly a unanimous feeling among the world-class athletes who will compete in Saturday's "USA vs. the World" races that the Penn Relays is a special place to be every year. But in 2012, with the Olympics arriving in a little more than three months, the runners are getting together to practice as a relay team and develop some chemistry among themselves. "It's definitely time to line up and put our best team together and get the stick around," Carmelita Jeter, the 100-meter gold medalist in last year's World Track and Field Championships, said Friday.

With the third-straight morning of heavy fog burned off, the day has turned dazzling. The National Weather Service in Mount Holly had a dense fog advisory through 11 this morning, but the fog moved out much earlier. Otherwise we should temperatures in the upper 70s today, with a forecast high of 76. But, we could possibly approach the record high of 80. More patchy fog is expected again tomorrow morning. But Friday is expected to turn mostly sunny with a high of 80. Showers are forecast for Saturday, mostly in the afternoon with a high of 67. Showers are again likely for Sunday.

LONDON - It was called "outcast London" for its squalid slums in Victorian times, has a dubious reputation as the haunt of Jack the Ripper, and one of Britain's most polluted rivers runs through its long-derelict shipyards and warehouses. It's no wonder that for a long time, east London has been all but ignored by tourists who stick to the West End, the home of blockbuster musicals, royal palaces, Harrods, and Oxford Street. This year, those prejudices are likely to change as the Olympics inject huge investments into changing the face of the East End. Massive redevelopment works in the area have already given it a dramatic makeover.

Theater people want every performance to be memorable for each new audience. But the pressure really mounts when a theater celebrity is in the audience, as was the case Sunday when Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen flew in from London to see the Walnut Street Theatre's production of The Mousetrap . Familiar doesn't come close to describing Waley-Cohen's relationship with the venerable Agatha Christie murder mystery, which has been performed in London since...

With the 2012 London Games rapidly approaching - the opening ceremony is July 27- many travelers are wondering how to have the most affordable Olympic experience possible. A number of free and low-cost options are available for visitors. Live locations: Live coverage of Olympic events will be provided on large, outdoor screens in more than 20 urban locations throughout the United Kingdom, including Edinburgh, Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, and others. Sports fans looking to combine a bit of tourism with their Olympic visit will be able to keep tabs on the games while exploring a bit of history at the same time.

The top distance runners in the country will be competing for spots on the U.S. Olympic team Saturday in Houston during the Olympic trials marathon. The top three male and female finishers in the 26.2-mile race will qualify for the 2012 London Olympics. The favorite in the men's race is Ryan Hall, 29, who has the best American marathon time - a 2-hour, 4-minute, 58-second run in the 2011 Boston Marathon - and won the 2008 Olympic marathon trials. He also finished first in the 2009 Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon in Philadelphia.

A MAN WHO hurled a banana on the ice at Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds during an exhibition game in London, Ontario, was fined $200, according to the Globe and Mail. Christopher Morehouse was charged with provincial traspassing because London police said there was not enough evidence to charge him with a hate crime. Morehouse, 26, pled guilty through his attorney, Faisal Joseph. He did not appear in court and was given 90 days to pay the fine. Joseph has said his client did not know that throwing a banana at a black player could be seen as hateful.