Vatanen takes on Todt in FIA election

Ari Vatanen hopes his pledge to clean up a sport hit by Formula One's crippling scandals is enough to beat favorite Jean Todt in Friday's vote to decide the new head of motor racing's governing body.

The two men are the only candidates to replace Max Mosley, and Todt has backing from the influential and outgoing FIA president. Todt, a 63-year-old Frenchman, is a former Ferrari team principal who revived the fortunes of the flagging Italian team, and also worked on FIA's World Motor Sport Council.

Vatanen is a former world rally and Paris-Dakar champion from Finland who once raced under Todt in the 1980s.

"My role is to offer an alternative …

Beleaguered Switzer Circles the Wagons

Dallas Cowboys coach Barry Switzer held an "us against the world"meeting with his players Monday and defended himself amid heavycriticism about his fourth-down call in the team's 20-17 loss Sundayto the Philadelphia Eagles.

"I'm a thick-skinned SOB," Switzer said when asked about thesecond-guessing. "I was trying to go win a football game. It wasthe right thing to do at the right time. I know the pulse of ourteam."

Switzer twice decided to go for a first down on fourth-and-onefrom his own 29-yard line with the score tied and two minutes toplay. No player publicly questioned Switzer's decision, which led tothe Eagles' winning field goal.

"If we had made …

Tanguay, Iginla lead Flames past sloppy Wild 5-2

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (AP) — Alex Tanguay and Jarome Iginla had third-period goals to pad Calgary's lead and help stop a three-game losing streak for the Flames with a 5-2 win on Sunday over the Minnesota Wild.

Matt Giordano, Lee Stempniak and T.J. Brodie scored during a furious first period, and Mikka Kiprusoff steadied himself after the early barrage to make 19 saves for the Flames. He improved to 26-15-5 in his career against the Wild.

Cal Clutterbuck and Nick Johnson had goals in those first 9 minutes for the Wild, but goalie Niklas Backstrom was pulled for Josh Harding after the Flames took a 3-2 lead.

Backstrom was in the net for the first time in four games — he was …

Sopranos actor arrested for DUI in Tampa

Actor Joseph Gannascoli, who appeared in the TV series "The Sopranos," has been arrested on a DUI charge in Tampa.

According to jail records, Tampa police arrested 51-year-old Gannascoli early Friday morning. He has posted $500 bond and was expected to be released from Hillsborough County jail later Friday. It is unclear if he …

Record-breaking Toulouse have proved they are the team to beat in Europe

Ask any rugby supporter which club any Heineken Cup hopeful canexpect to have to beat to win European rugby biggest prize and theanswer is, more often than not, Toulouse.

Three-times winners, Stade Toulousain have been on the top-tableaction in Europe since day one and Guy Noves' French powerhousesboast an unparalleled record in the competition.

Indeed, you can almost put your shirt on Toulouse to be in theknockout phase - a feat they have achieved no less than eight timessince the Heineken Cup's inaugural season back in 1995-96.

They won it that year, beating Cardiff in the final and they gottheir hands on the trophy again in 2002-03, beating Perpignan in …

Former Roxbury secessionist launches fathers' rights crusade

Twenty years ago, Andrew P. Jones set political imaginations aflame with his vision of Boston's black community incorporated as a new city within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The idea of a new municipality, to be named "Mandela" after the imprisoned African National Congress leader, provoked heated debate, attracted national attention, and led to successive ballot measures in which voters expressed a preference, to Jones' disappointment, for the status quo.

In 1998, Jones left Boston to pursue his career as a filmmaker and teacher in Nelson Mandela's homeland. Now married to a South African and living in Johannesburg with his wife and their two young sons, Jones is …

Reid seeks to lower expectations for auto bailout

The top Senate Democrat sought Wednesday to lower expectations for legislation this week to help endangered domestic carmakers, saying it would be the Bush administration's job to save the industry if Congress doesn't.

"The Congress need do nothing" if it can't agree on a bill to speed $25 billion in new loans to the industry, Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada told colleagues. While he told the Senate he still hoped lawmakers could agree to an auto deal in the "next day or two" of the current lame-duck session, he added: "If we can't do it here legislatively, I would hope that the secretary of Treasury would listen loud and clear because they could take …