People

Nelson Mandela plans to travel to London June 27 to attend a special birthday concert in London's Hyde Park, organizers said Tuesday. The South African Nobel Prize-winner is retired and rarely makes public appearances. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, former President Clinton and talk-show host Oprah Winfrey also plan to attend. Proceeds will go to the 46664 charity, a reference to the number Mandela wore while imprisoned.

Singer out early

Pete Doherty was released from a London jail Tuesday after serving a partial sentence for breaking his probation. The Babyshambles frontman had served 29 days of a 14-week sentence for possession of crack cocaine, heroin, ketamine and cannabis, as well as a variety of driving offenses. Doherty is best known as the on-off boyfriend of model Kate Moss.

Stalker faces 1 year

Jack Jordan, 37, an out-of-work lifeguard, pool cleaner and former mental patient obsessed with Uma Thurman, faces up to a year in jail after a New York City jury convicted him Tuesday of stalking and harassing the actress with a barrage of frightening advances. The judge ordered a psychiatric exam before the June 2 sentencing hearing.

Spears gets a break

Embattled singer Britney Spears was granted expanded visitation rights with her two sons, Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1, Tuesday. Both boys, however, remain in the custody of their father, Kevin Federline. Spears will be back in Superior Court in Los Angeles July 15 for a progress report.

Records

Smoked out

Looks like it will be close, but no giant cigar, for Cuba's stogie-rolling king Jose Castelar. The 64-year-old former world-record holder has teamed up with five assistants, using nearly 93 pounds of tobacco to assemble a 98-foot cigar. Castelar set Guinness Records for the world's longest cigars in 2001, 2003 and April 2005, when he completed a stogie just shy of 67 feet. Guinness says Puerto Rican cigar-maker Patricio Pena made a 135-foot stogie last year.

Passages

Alvin Colt, 92, a Tony Award-winning costume designer whose work spanned more than 60 years from "On the Town" to the "Forbidden Broadway" revues, died Sunday at Roosevelt Hospital in New York City.

Beverlee McKinsey, 72, an actress best known for roles she played on the daytime soap operas "Another World" in the 1970s and "Guiding Light" in the 1980s, died Friday at a Los Angeles hospital of complications after a kidney transplant.

Today in History

1915: Nearly 1,200 people died when a German torpedo sank the British liner RMS Lusitania off the Irish coast.

1954: The 55-day Battle of Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam ended with Vietnamese insurgents overrunning French forces.

1975: President Ford formally declared an end to the "Vietnam era." The Viet Cong celebrated its takeover of Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon.

Today's Birthdays

R&B singer Thelma Houston, 62. NBC newsman Tim Russert, 58. Movie writer-director Amy Heckerling, 54. Actor Michael E. Knight, 49. Actress Traci Lords, 39.

Seattle Times news services