Swiss unveil giant catamaran for Cup defense

The worst-kept secret in the America's Cup is official: Alinghi of Switzerland will sail a giant catamaran when it defends the oldest trophy in international sports early next year against bitter U.S. rival BMW Oracle Racing.

The Swiss confirmed Saturday they will sail a twin-hulled boat that is 90 feet long on the waterline. The cat reportedly has a bowsprit that makes it about 120 feet overall.

The high-tech craft was built in Villeneuve, Switzerland, and will be launched by helicopter on Lake Geneva this coming week before undergoing testing.

Alinghi and BMW Oracle Racing of San Francisco are scheduled to meet in a best-of-three series in …

Call can aid refinishing

Stumped by how to refinish a quirky piece of furniture youimpetuously bought at a garage sale?

Let a Homer Formby specialist help.

This is Formby's 25th year in the …

Rio police, backed by military, surround gang turf

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Police searched homes and secured the perimeter of a Rio de Janeiro shantytown Friday that has long been a stronghold for drug gangs and a symbol of their ability to rule vast areas of the seaside city with impunity.

About 80 federal police officers joined state police in door-to-door searches in the Vila Cruzeiro slum as 800 military troops, trained in surrounding and isolating conflict areas, stood ready in their headquarters, 12 miles (20 kilometers) away, to back them up.

The area had been taken by law enforcement just hours before during a five-hour operation using armored vehicles and assault rifles.

After bulletproof vehicles had their tires …

Gulf oil spill could reach shore Thursday night

The leading edge of a massive oil spill that's become far worse than initially thought in the Gulf of Mexico was expected to reach the Louisiana shore by Thursday night. Government officials, the oil company and others rushed to try to protect the fragile marshlands from an ecological disaster.

As of late Thursday morning, part of the slick was about 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) from the Mississippi River delta, said National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration spokesman Charles Henry said.

A blown-out well a mile (1.6 kilometers) underwater is leaking in three places, spewing 5,000 barrels a day into the gulf _ five times more than originally thought.

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Stocks Slip 3

NEW YORK Stocks were modestly lower today as investors, lackingclear direction from the bond market, tinkered with their portfoliosahead of the weekend.

Investors bought economically sensitive stocks that had beenbeaten up over the last week and took profits in those sectors thathad overperformed, such as consumer stocks.

The Dow Jones industrial average was off 3.86 points to close at3,648.68. Volume on the New York Stock Exchange reached 296.3million shares. Advancing issues outpaced declining ones by 1,264to 909 on the Big Board, with 586 unchanged.

Stocks rose early in the session, pushed higher by rising bondprices, before falling back. The price …

Connie Briscoe's 'P.G. County' an entertaining read

Connie Briscoe, author of A Long Way Home, Big Girls Don't Cry and Sisters & Lovers, returns to the literary scene in fabulous form with P.G. County. This novel takes place in Prince George's County, an affluent African American Community in Maryland, and is sure to make you nostalgic for Melrose Place. Briscoe's words leap off the page and pull you into the deuced scandals of infidelity, rape, alcoholism, violence and interracial dating. Her characters are money-driven and high-strung yet humane and familiar.

If Briscoe could have taken one or two (hundred) of those -ly words out, P.G. County would have been an all-around well-crafted story. Everyone spoke crisply, …

Pakistan to ask IMF if country gets no other help

Pakistan will ask the International Monetary Fund for a bailout package in less than two weeks if it can not secure other funding, the official in charge of the effort to stabilize the crisis-wracked country said Tuesday.

But an IMF program would be politically unpopular in Pakistan because it likely would come with painful conditions to cut government spending that could affect programs for the poor.

In talks with a British envoy on Tuesday, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari "underlined the government could ill afford financial assistance from the IMF with tough conditions," the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Zardari …