Britain

Three young Britons were declared guilty Monday in a London court of planning to blow up transatlantic planes in a spectacularly scaled, Al Qaeda terrorist plot that could have killed thousands of people. A jury in Woolwich Crown Court convicted Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 28, Tanvir Hussain, 28, and Assad Sarwar, 29, of conspiring to murder by setting off liquid bombs smuggled aboard seven North America-bound airliners in sports-drink bottles. Police have said their plan was possibly days from fruition when the men were arrested in August 2006 amid the biggest counter-terrorism investigation in British history.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, his Labor Party at risk of losing elections next year after more than a decade in power, sought Tuesday to win over moderate voters and rally supporters with promises of reform and a plea to "dream big." Speaking to the last major Labor Party conference before the balloting, Brown promised to press for new laws and efforts to fight political and financial corruption, improve healthcare for cancer patients and the elderly, and increase spending on education, policing, international development and climate change studies.

Sorry, old chum. Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. and Live Nation Inc. may have to divest assets in the United Kingdom to go ahead with their proposed merger, British regulators said Thursday. The Competition Commission, which investigates mergers for the British government, issued a provisional ruling that the merger of ticketing giant Ticketmaster and concert production company Live Nation could "severely inhibit" German ticketing company CTS Eventim. CTS signed a deal before the proposed merger was announced in February to sell tickets to music events for Live Nation in Britain.

An American document that allegedly describes the torture of a former Guantanamo Bay inmate should be made public, a British court ruled Friday, dismissing Britain's argument that it was suppressing the information to preserve its intelligence-sharing relationship with the United States and to uphold national safety. The document contains a seven-paragraph summary of the treatment that Binyam Mohamed received in 2002 after being detained as a suspected terrorist. Mohamed, 31, a British resident, alleges that he was subjected to torture, including beatings and sexual mutilation, by interrogators in Pakistan and elsewhere with the full knowledge of American and British intelligence agents.

The parishioners at St. Savior's come from various backgrounds: Afro-Caribbean countries, Eastern European nations, Britain itself. But it may be that all roads are leading them to Rome. The East London church is Anglican in name but Roman Catholic in spirit and worship, with the "smells and bells" of traditional Roman Catholic liturgy. Father David Waller sticks to the Vatican's line on doctrines such as transubstantiation -- the transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus -- and teachings such as the ban on contraception.

The British government announced Tuesday that it would break up parts of major financial institutions bailed out by taxpayers, highlighting a growing divide across the Atlantic over how to deal with the massive banks that were partially nationalized during the height of the financial crisis. The British government -- spurred on by European regulators -- is forcing Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group and Northern Rock to sell off parts of their operations. The Europeans are calling for more and smaller banks to increase competition and eliminate the threat posed by banks so large that they must be rescued by taxpayers, no matter how they conducted their business, in order to avoid damaging the global financial system.

Let down by his own bad handwriting, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown found himself apologizing yet again Tuesday to a woman whose name he misspelled in a condolence letter over the death of her son in Afghanistan. The epistolary faux pas and the ensuing uproar have nearly swamped the national debate here over the Afghanistan conflict since news of Brown's mistake emerged Monday. Questioned repeatedly about it at a news conference Tuesday, the prime minister said he was sorry for any offense caused to the grieving mother but also used the occasion to restate the importance of Britain's commitment to a war that seems to be losing public support by the day. Hours after Brown spoke, the bodies of six more soldiers killed in Afghanistan arrived back on British soil, including five men who were shot last week by a rogue Afghan police officer.

British authorities are investigating 33 allegations of abuse, including rape, torture and assault, by British soldiers who served in Iraq, the Ministry of Defense said Saturday. One claimant says he was raped by two British soldiers; another claims he was sexually humiliated by male and female personnel. Others allege they were stripped naked and photographed in the same way as detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison, where abuses of prisoners by American troops helped fuel anti-U.S. sentiment.

The BBC says little-known actor Matt Smith will take over the title role in the long-running sci-fi series "Doctor Who." The 26-year-old is the 11th actor to star in one of Britain's most popular TV shows -- and the youngest. Smith has appeared on the London stage and starred in the political TV drama "Party Animals," but is a relative unknown. The new role will make him a major star in Britain, where "Doctor Who" regularly draws 10 million viewers per episode. Current star David Tennant plans to leave the show after four special episodes this year.

Sir Alan Walters, 82, a top economic advisor to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, died Saturday in England after suffering from Parkinson's disease for seven years. "Alan Walters was the best economic advisor any prime minister ever had -- radical, fearless, consistent and creative," Thatcher said in a statement. "He was a great public servant and, to me personally, he was the truest of friends." Walters persuaded Thatcher to take one of her biggest risks by raising taxes during a recession in 1981.