England

Apparently that tired, worried, cranky old beast called America still can cook up a story line of dreamy nonfiction, for it's just bloody hard to choose the best part of finding Jozy Altidore in this nook of eastern England commonly called "Hull." Maybe the best part would be that scene from Sept. 19, when the Hull City starting 11 strode out and lined up in their tiger orange to play Birmingham in the world's biggest sports league, and a cheer went up in a soccer-soaked household across the Atlantic in Boca Raton.

England can win the World Cup in South Africa next year, Galaxy midfielder David Beckham said Wednesday. Of course, so can Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and possibly a dark horse or two, but confidence is riding particularly high on England's national soccer team. "You have to go into a competition believing that you can go all the way," Beckham said before the Galaxy's morning training session. "I believe that we've got a chance -- if we play like we've been playing and have that togetherness that we've shown all the way through the qualifiers.

Initial tests indicate that Georgian billionaire Badri Patarkatsishvili, an opposition leader who had claimed he was the target of an assassination plot, died of natural causes, British police said Thursday. Patarkatsishvili, 52, died Tuesday night in his mansion near London less than two months after he said he feared for his life because of his role in a protest movement against Georgia's government.

The tactic echoed the unthinkable cruelty of the Iraqi war zone. The target was a crowded family restaurant. And the accused would-be attacker, who was wounded when his bomb went off prematurely in the restaurant bathroom, was a hulking 22-year-old who police say has mental problems.

In a country that practically invented irony, Gordon Brown's return from the political dead should probably come as no surprise. The British prime minister, written off as finished just two weeks ago, has clawed his way back up the opinion polls, thanks to the financial crisis dragging down banks and stock markets worldwide. With Britain particularly hard hit, Brown is hammering on the theme that only he has the experience to prevent a calamity. Plenty of voters seem to be buying the argument.

Britain's Prince William and Prince Harry set off Saturday on a grueling 1,000-mile motorcycle rally in South Africa to raise money for charity. The pair joked that they had a wager on who would tumble from his bike the most during the eight-day off-road adventure.

John Adams slept here. As ambassador to the Court of St. James's from the newly born United States of America, the future president took up residence on Grosvenor Square in London's fashionable Mayfair district, an easy walk to the bespoke tailors on Savile Row and the royal residence at Buckingham Palace. The move launched an American presence on the square, north of the River Thames, that has lasted more than 200 years. Not for much longer. Last month, the U.S.

According to the august Oxford English Dictionary, going bananas was simply not done before 1968, nobody went bonkers before 1957 and no one went to the loo before 1940. But the publishers of the 600,000-word reference book, billed as "the definitive record of the English language," are willing to be proved wrong.

A British Muslim who led a crowd in chants of "Bomb, bomb Denmark, bomb, bomb USA" during protests over newspaper cartoons of the prophet Muhammad was found guilty of incitement to murder. Umran Javed, 27, was one of the leaders of a Feb. 3 rally outside the Danish Embassy in London, the prosecutor said. The crowd was estimated at 200 to 300 people. Javed, also convicted of racial incitement, told the jury he was disappointed with himself and had been caught up with emotion.

OVER the past year, doom's trumpet has blown a few blasts in the general direction of the music industry. But in the U.K., music itself is feeling good and ready to show America a very good time indeed. Of course, if you survey the U.S.