Even though artwork by the British graffiti artist Banksy is popular with celebrities such as Angelina Jolie and Christina Aguilera, some regard the artist's street works to be vandalism, pure and simple. On Oct. 23, the Council of Westminster in London ordered the removal of a 23 ft Banksy mural — reportedly his largest work in central London — claiming that it encourages graffiti. In an exclusive statement to TIME, the mysterious guerrilla prankster has responded ...

Osama bin Laden wanted to talk to his followers. This time the U.S. government was only too happy to help. Within a day of hearing the scratchy audiocassette of the al-Qaeda leader praising the recent bombings in Bali and the Moscow theater assault, intelligence sources tell TIME, U.S. agents paid a visit to one of bin Laden's senior operatives, Ramzi Binalshibh, held for interrogation at a safe house somewhere overseas. They played the 3-minute tape for Binalshibh, who has begun ...

In 1998, Andrew Wakefield, a gastroenterologist at London's Royal Free Hospital, published a study in the prestigious medical journal Lancet that linked the triple Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccine with autism and bowel disorders in children. The study — and Wakefield's subsequent public statements that parents should refuse the vaccines — sparked a public health panic that led vaccination rates in Britain to plunge. Wakefield's study has since been discredited, and the MMR vaccine deemed to be ...

In the show's heyday, a billion people worldwide watched Upstairs, Downstairs, the saga of a family of London aristocrats who shared a house at 165 Eaton Place with a fleet of salt-of-the-earth servants. The series, which aired in a reported 70 countries, won seven Emmy Awards and two BAFTAs and became such a fixture of the cultural landscape that when the Muppets spoofed it on Monsterpiece Theater, Alistair Cookie welcomed viewers to "Episode 793." He was exaggerating: there were ...

The pioneers of punk rock do not quite burn AtlantaAs the four musicians straggled toward the plane at London's Heathrow Airport last week, it was clear from their appearance that they were not just another Top 40 act. They spat in the air, hurled four-letter words at the photographers and with malevolent glares set off shivers in their fellow travelers. Said one woman passenger in disbelief: "What are we flying with —a load of animals?" No, just the Sex Pistols living up to their bad-boy ...

Humans have expended a great deal of intellectual energy over the past few thousand years trying to understand the morality of seeking pleasure. Most of philosophy begins with the question of what defines the good life. But what if the answer to what makes us happy comes down to how much of a particular chemical is circulating in our brain at any particular moment? The neurotransmitter dopamine isn't quite that powerful, but evidence has been ...

He's the fastest runner ever, but Usain Bolt accepts that it will take people time to believe that he has no illegal assistance."The Olympics is going to be a very big thing for me because I did extraordinary things in Beijing," he said. "I'm definitely coming here to defend my titles and I'm looking forward to it because there are a lot of Jamaicans here so I know it's going to be a good Games. I'm just going to ...

The New England Patriots extended Tampa Bay's dismal run with a 35-7 victory at London's Wembley Stadium as NFL action returned to Britain for the third successive year on Sunday night.

From seabeds to mountaintops, people around the world were staging a day of demonstrations Saturday to call for urgent action on climate change.The number of 350 ppm originally came from a NASA research team headed by American climate scientist James Hansen, which surveyed both real-time climate observations and emerging paleo-climatic data in January 2008, according to 350.org. It concluded that atmosphere containing carbon dioxide above 350 ppm couldn't support life on earth as we know it, the group said. "It's ...

Chelsea are seeking to have the English club's worldwide transfer ban put on hold until an appeal is heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The London outfit have already lodged an appeal against FIFA's ruling, which prevents the club from registering any new players during the next two transfer windows. They had been found guilty of illegally inducing teenager Gael Kakuta to breach his contract with French club Lens two years ago. The CAS has now confirmed ...