An update on the strangeness production measurements and<i>H</i>₀di-baryon search as performed by the AGS experiment 896

E896 was designed to search for the predicted short-lived six-quark H0 di-baryon. The goal is to enhance the existing knowledge by extending the search into regions of shorter lifetimes (approximately half that of the lambda) and via exploring a new creation channel, that of the coalescence of two lambdas. Two main tracking chambers are used, a distributed drift chamber positioned to measure low-pt and high-rapidity neutral particle decay products and a silicon drift detector array which measures particle production at mid-rapidity. Both detectors are also investigating lambda polarization, over their respective coverages, for Au-Au collisions at 11.3 GeV/nucleon. The current status of the H0 di-baryon search and preliminary results of the strange particle production and polarization measurements will be presented.