London

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.

Carmelo Anthony returned to his Olympic gold-medal past and scored 26 points Thursday to lead the New York Knicks to a 102-87 victory over the Detroit Pistons in London. Anthony scored 18 in the first half as the Knicks (25-13) jumped out to a 16-2 lead before holding a double-digit advantage for most of the game. Amar'e Stoudemire added 17 points for the Knicks and J.R. Smith scored 16. Will Bynum led the Pistons with 22 points. The Pistons (14-25) were the home team at the O2 Arena in London, site of the Olympic gold-medal game during last year's London Games.

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.

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.

LONDON - Violence and looting raged across London and spread to three other major British cities Tuesday, 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.

My Brother the Devil Two brothers from a traditional Egyptian household in a gang-controlled section of London face an unexpected challenge to their relationship. ( No MPAA rating , Ritz Bourse)

HAD JENNIFER CHILDS' youthful dreams materialized, she'd have been a leading light in the Royal Shakespeare Company. But had she worn the crowns of such characters as Anne Boleyn or Isabelle, wife of Richard II, in Stratford-on-Avon and London, she never would have achieved her exalted status as Philadelphia's Queen of Comedy. For more than a decade, the 44-year-old strawberry-blonde has reigned as local theater's answer to Carol Burnett or Lucille Ball - a gifted performer who'd rather take a pie in the face than rip your heart out with a sober soliloquy.

It was an unassuming spot, and we probably would have walked right past it if we hadn't known what we were looking for: a clump of about five dozen trees perched on the top of a blustery hill. But when we walked up, there was no mistaking it: There before us lay the Enchanted Place, also known as Galleons Lap, a resting ground for childhoods the world over. It's the spot where Christopher Robin, no longer a little boy, and his beloved companion Winnie-the-Pooh came to say their fumbling goodbyes: "Being enchanted, its floor wasn't like the floor of the Forest, gorse and bracken and heather, but close-set grass, quiet and smooth and green.

My husband and I have five grandchildren who do not live near us. Several years ago, we decided it would be great to get to know them better (and them us) by taking each one individually on a one-week trip. Last year, we made our first such excursion, to London with 10-year-old Jonathan. Of course, we got normal (and understandable) motherly warnings from our daughter: He gets height fright; he can't wait to get to a restaurant to have breakfast; no matter what time he goes to bed, he will awaken by 7; and so on. Well, off we went.

LONDON - A helicopter crashed into a crane and fell on a crowded street in central London during rush hour Wednesday, sending flames and black plumes of smoke into the air. The pilot and one person on the ground were killed and 13 others injured, officials said. The helicopter crashed in misty weather just south of the River Thames near the Underground and mainline train station at Vauxhall, and close to the headquarters of spy agency MI6. Police said one person had critical injuries.

Carmelo Anthony returned to his Olympic gold-medal past and scored 26 points Thursday to lead the New York Knicks to a 102-87 victory over the Detroit Pistons in London. Anthony scored 18 in the first half as the Knicks (25-13) jumped out to a 16-2 lead before holding a double-digit advantage for most of the game. Amar'e Stoudemire added 17 points for the Knicks and J.R. Smith scored 16. Will Bynum led the Pistons with 22 points. The Pistons (14-25) were the home team at the O2 Arena in London, site of the Olympic gold-medal game during last year's London Games.

Rashann London's career day carried host Roman Catholic to a 73-48 victory over Father Judge in a Catholic League boys' basketball game Sunday. London, a 6-foot-2 junior point guard, scored a career-best 30 points on 11-for-17 shooting from the floor. London also had four assists. Shep Garner added 16 points for the Cahillites, who moved to 7-4 overall and 2-0 in the league. TreVaughn Wilkerson contributed seven points and 10 rebounds, while Traci Carter had eight points and four assists.

By her own admission, U.S women's national soccer team star Carli Lloyd was almost written off earlier this year. Heading into the Olympics, Lloyd suddenly found herself out of coach Pia Sundhage's starting lineup. As her 30th birthday arrived in mid-July, there were questions as to whether the Delran, N.J., native could be out of the picture entirely. Instead, Lloyd flipped the script. She stepped up when her team needed her most, and ended up playing a big role in the U.S.' gold-medal run. By the time she and her teammates stood on the podium at Wembley Stadium, there were no doubts left about what Lloyd brings to the field.

LONDON - Charles Dickens' London home has gone from bleak house to great expectations. For years, the four-story brick rowhouse where the author lived with his young family was a dusty and slightly neglected museum, a mecca for Dickens scholars but overlooked by most visitors to London. Now, after a $4.8 million makeover, it has been restored to bring the writer's world to life. The house reopened this month, and its director says it aims to look "as if Dickens had just stepped out. " "The Dickens Museum felt for many years a bit like Miss Havisham, covered in dust," said museum director Florian Schweizer, who slips references to Dickens' work seamlessly into his speech.

Ruth Tengood arrived early for her birthday party Saturday afternoon. Didn't want to miss her 100th. "I'm waiting for my brother," she announced. "Where is he?" Her son, Steve, had picked her up five minutes away, at Harmony Place, and brought her to where her twin brother, Alfred Pick, lives at Paul's Run. The conference room at the Northeast Philadelphia seniors community was decorated with balloons that framed two large photographs on the table, sepia-toned portraits of a girl and a boy both no older than 6. Four generations of family would be celebrating the centennial of siblings who made a life in Philadelphia after fleeing Nazi Germany.