Elon (9-2) will play at the University of Richmond (10-1) on Saturday at 1 p.m. in the first round of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. UR and Elon, of the Southern Conference, played in the opening game for both teams last season at Elon, which is located near Burlington, N.C. UR won 28-10 in Mike London’s debut as the Spiders’ coach. Richmond, which shared the Colonial Athletic Association championship with Villanova, is seeded No. 4 in the 16-team field, which has only four seeded teams.

Until Saturday’s 21-20 setback to Villanova, the University of Richmond hadn’t lost a football game in more than a year. So it’s reasonable to wonder how the Spiders will respond following the end of their 17-game winning streak. “This is a strong team. We’ve been in positions like this before,“ said UR quarterback Eric Ward, a fifth-year senior. “We’ve suffered losses like this, heart-breaking losses in the last minute.“

A break-up would have sufficed. University of Richmond safety Derek Hatcher yesterday arrived as the passed ball did. Instead of the break-up, Hatcher went for the interception, and got it by prying the ball from the Massachusetts player who momentarily had possession in the third-quarter sequence. UR coach Mike London called Hatcher’s thievery “one of the best plays defensively I’ve ever seen. . . . Talk about ball awareness.“

Two men charged in an audacious jewel heist in London appeared in court Friday as police continued their investigation into the $66 million robbery.

John Stanwix Jr. of Henrico County recently spent a week in London with his wife and captured the nighttime beauty of some of the landmarks near the River Thames. “There is always something magical about a city at night,“ Stanwix said. “The combination of the river and lights on the building was mesmerizing.“

LONDON The house has everything an Agatha Christie fan could want—except a body in the library. The stuccoed Georgian villa where the writer spent her vacations is open to the public after a $7.8 million restoration. Visitors can see the bedroom where Christie slept, the dining room where she entertained, and the drawing room where she thrilled friends with readings from her latest whodunit.

Now, the country discovers Mike London. Learns he was a Richmond detective in the street-crimes unit. Learns he was the bone-marrow donor six years ago for his daughter, Learns his theory that relationships are more important to winning than all else combined.

LONDON—Each day, the average London resident is filmed 300 times as he or she walks their children to school, takes the train to the office or relaxes after work at a sidewalk cafe. Britain has 4.2 million closed-circuit surveillance cameras, one for every 15 people in the country, security experts say. In a nation that worries about terrorist attacks as well as regular crime, most people are hardly bothered by the lack of privacy.

LONDON (AP)—The European Central Bank and the Bank of England are joining the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks in slashing interest rates to shore up confidence in markets shaken by the world financial crisis. The Bank of England cut its base lending rate by half a point to 4.5 percent, while the ECB cut to 3.75 percent. Other central banks also taking part include the banks of Canada, Sweden, and Switzerland.

LONDON—The British government announced a 50 billion pounds ($87.5 billion) plan today to partly nationalize major banks, with taxpayers taking stakes in a bid to shore up a financial sector hard hit by the world financial crisis. Prime Minister Gordon Brown billed it as a “radical” plan to stabilize banks so that they could resume normal lending and other operations, rather than trying to buy up bad assets as the United States is doing. The government also offered up to 200 billion pounds ($350 billion) in short-term lending support.