October 19, 2000

Article discusses bitter rematch between Representative James H Maloney, two-term incumbent Democrat, and his Republican challenger, Mark Nielsen, for Congressional seat in Connecticut's fifth district; photo (M)

Voters in Ann Arbor, Mich, say third and last debate between Vice Pres Al Gore and Gov George W Bush has not changed their voting plans; many of them express dissatisfaction with what they heard; Republicans, Democrats and ticket-splitters alike laugh derisively when Gore claims his children made independent decisions to attend debate; others groan or hiss when Bush refuses to say if he supports affirmative action; in post-debate discussion, participants say final round was mostly about reinforcing previous views about two men (M)

New Canaan, Conn, is home to cadre of design connoisseurs and architectural buffs with passion for Modernist houses of 1960's that most other people love to hate; photos (M)

New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza discusses his thoughts about playing New York Yankees in World Series; photo (M)

Second article in series, Much Ado About a Vision, on commercial failure of The Wild Party, musical produced by Joseph Papp Public Theater, which closed shortly after opening in April; failure raises questions about Public and Broadway's capacity to handle unorthodox fare, and highlights issues and problems that can arise in increasingly frequent partnerships between nonprofit theaters and commercial producers; photos (M)

Interests of Northwest Airlines and Continental Airlines diverge as trial nears in Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit to stop their merger; two airlines, which previously had formed alliance combining their route networks so each could serve more destinations, were named as co-defendants when suit was filed in 1998; Continental's chairman, Gordon M Bethune, has since made it clear that he wants airline to buy back its shares from Northwest, and his company has now taken government's side; tension between two airlines has grown so great that Northwest has been granted permission by Judge Denise Page Hood to designate Continental as hostile to its interests (M)

New York Yankees discuss preparations to play New York Mets in World Series; photo (M)

Israeli and Palestinian leaders take first promised steps to avert further violence, with Israel pulling back some troops and reopening border posts and Palestinian Authority pledging to work on calming situation; initial moves toward truce are accompanied by continuing skirmishes between soldiers and rioters, and by Israel's reported capture of Palestinians it accuses of taking part in mob killing of two of its soldiers last week; Israelis cheer report of their arrests; Palestinians accuse Israel of abducting men from Palestinian territory in violation of agreement reached at Sharm el Sheik, Egypt; photo (M)

Shares of British biotechnology company Cantab Pharmaceuticals plummet 67 percent, to 76.5 pence ($1.11) after it says genital-wart vaccine called TH-GW failed in tests; company says SmithKline Beecham has stopped work on drug; graph (S)

Sony Corp agrees to sell manufacturing operations in northern Japan and Taiwan to Solectron of Milpitas, Calif, leading maker of electronics for other companies; photos (S)

Worldcom Inc intends to issue new stock to track its consumer and wholesale long-distance units; new stock would track unit that generally sells long-distance service to consumers under MCI and Telecom USA brands and has annual revenue of about $12 billion (M)

Inflation Pace Picks Up Inflation is on pace for its largest annual jump in a decade, even as the economy seems to be slowing, new figures showed. PAGE C4 Not a New Era Yet Though Slobodan Milosevic has been ousted in Serbia, many difficult problems remain in place in the Balkan region. NEWS ANALYSIS, PAGE A3