Allen calls risk of oil spill insignificant

New Orleans

Allen calls risk of oil spill insignificant

Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said Wednesday that there is no "significant risk" that more oil will leak into the Gulf of Mexico today when engineers plan to remove the temporary cap that first contained the BP gusher in July. He said vessels will remain on standby just in case to collect any leaking oil. Engineers plan to remove the cap and raise the blowout preventer, which failed to stop the oil from leaking in the first place. Engineers will then proceed with the final plugging of the blown-out well.

MADRID

Spain deficit falls but pain remains

Spain's budget deficit is down sharply thanks to an unpopular cocktail of tax hikes and austerity cuts — good news for a government fighting fears it might need a bailout like the one that saved Greece from bankruptcy. Still, with a fifth of the work force out of a job and businesses struggling to survive, the spending cuts that are helping the budget are likely to keep any economic recovery subdued.

ATLANTA

Struggle at top of the SCLC decided

A faction of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference led by two men under criminal investigation is out and the group that opposed them is officially in control of the once-premier civil rights group, a Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday. A public struggle for control was taken to court, where both sides hoped to have the final word. Fulton County Judge Alford Dempsey said in his order that the board led by former chairman Raleigh Trammell of Dayton, Ohio, and former treasurer Spiver Gordon of Eutaw, Ala., and president Markel Hutchins of Atlanta does not have a role any more. The group that moved to oust them from their positions is the legal board.

Elsewhere

INDIANAPOLIS: American-born Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh and another Muslim inmate have asked a judge to order a federal prison to allow them and other Muslims to pray as a group, in accordance with their beliefs.

Times wires