London England

In times of war, they have proved safer than radios, more nimble than humans, more fuel-efficient than aircraft. Depending on the price of birdseed. Their exploits, though, have tended to go underappreciated here in London, where Mayor Ken Livingstone's long-running war with the lowly pigeon over who controls the territory of Trafalgar Square has tended to obscure the otherwise heroic stature of the ubiquitous waddlers. No more.

Orange County's latest investments in complex financial deals took a turn for the worse Wednesday when a fund in which the county placed $80 million neared default after a major U.K. bank aborted plans for a bailout. County officials said they expect the fund to miss a principal and interest payment to another investor today. That, in turn, would drive down the market value of Orange County's holdings.

In the smoke-filled rooms of backroom politics here, it was only natural that a cigar case with a storied past would become convenient fodder for scandal.

The trial of three alleged accomplices of the suicide bombers who struck the London transit system on July 7, 2005, killing 52 people, ended Friday when the jury failed to reach a verdict. Prosecutors had charged that the men helped scout targets during an alleged reconnaissance trip to London. The trio admitted training at militant camps in Pakistan, and physical evidence tied them to apartments where the backpack bombs were assembled, according to testimony.

With a map in her hand and a furrow in her brow, Delia Siedle tried to get her bearings. She was in alien territory, unsettled by the noisy throngs around her and the bewildering array of places to go. Should she head for the Village, a few minutes' walk away? Or wander over to the Southern Terrace? The map gave directions, but no answers. "I find it all a bit overwhelming, really," Siedle said.

Since 1485, the yeoman warders patrolling the Tower of London have been men. But officials said a woman was about to break into the ranks at the royal fortress. The woman who will join the blue-and-red-uniformed warders, also known as beefeaters, was not identified but is a member of the military, as are the 35 others with whom she will serve, spokeswoman Natasha Woollard said. The woman warder is to replace a retiree in late summer.

Bethlem Royal Hospital in London is one of the oldest psychiatric hospitals in the world -- and perhaps the only one to have endured centuries of notoriety for fetters, flogging, filth and exploitation. (In the 1700s, Londoners could pay an admission fee to see and torment the patients.) Today Bethlem, vastly improved, is part of Britain's National Health Service -- and, popularly called Bedlam, is also part of the English language.

Six men plotted to kill subway and bus passengers with bombs made from hydrogen peroxide and flour, two weeks after suicide bombers killed 52 commuters here, a British prosecutor told a jury Monday. No one was killed in the attempted bombings of three subway trains and a bus on July 21, 2005, because the devices failed to explode. "We say that the failure of these bombs to explode owed nothing to the intentions of the defendants.

The black-and-white images are jerky and hard to make out, but a man can be seen standing on the Northern Line subway as it heads toward central London. He is carrying a large backpack and wearing a hooded shirt with the words "New York" written across the front. Minutes later, the man turns so that his pack is wedged next to a young mother and her baby carriage.

Organizers of London Fashion Week said Thursday they would not ban ultra-thin models from the catwalk, but stressed they had asked designers to use only "healthy" people in their shows. The British Fashion Council said barring stick-thin models -- as fashion weeks in Madrid and Milan have done -- "is neither desirable nor enforceable."