November 16, 2000

Republican candidate for congressional seat in 12th district Dick Zimmer accuses incumbent Rep Rush Holt's campaign of coercing votes from hospitalized psychiatric patients; under New Jersey law, psychiatric patients can vote unless declared incompetent by courts, and it is not illegal for campaign workers to enter hospitals and speak with patients; representative of advocacy organization says it is offensive to suggest that people with mental illness are incapable of making intelligent decisions about politics (M)

Vice Pres Al Gore proposes on national television that he and Gov George W Bush should meet and agree to abide by results of hand recounts in two heavily Democratic counties in Florida, plus uncounted overseas ballots due by Nov 17; hours later Bush replies, brushing aside Gore's proposal and citing Florida secretary of state Katherine Harris's rejection of any further hand recount results; Harris's unexpected announcement comes after Gore's speech and before Bush's, in night of dramatic televised exchanges; Harris acknowledges that her decision is likely to set off court battle over manual recount; announcement by Harris, Republican elected official, seems clear tactical move to freeze election results in Bush's favor; timing of her announcement is certain to be subject of much debate; photo; chart (M)

Cable and Wireless PLC will sell its mobile and residential phone businesses in Australia to amass cash for future acquisitions (S)

Florida secretary of state, Katherine Harris, rejects results of any further hand recounts in presidential race, sending dispute back for showdown in Florida state courts, and Democrats vow to fight on; Harris claims explanations she received from counties about need for hand recounts are 'insufficient to warrant waiver' of filing deadline; Florida Supreme Court issues unanimous one-page ruling denying Harris's request to block recounts; Democratic enclave of Broward County begins manual recount of more than half million votes it says will take until Nov 20; Palm Beach County puts off its hand recount, and Miami-Dade County officials will review their earlier decision not to proceed with full recount; federal appeals court in Atlanta agrees to hear Gov George W Bush's request for injunction to block any further recounts as unconstitutional, paving way for possible review by United States Supreme Court (M)

AT&T, under pressure to reduce its holdings in cable industry, says it plans to spin off Liberty Media, company that owns stakes in programming companies and is controlled by entrepreneur John C Malone; Liberty now trades as an AT&T tracking stock but operates independently; AT&T will own no stake in Liberty after the spinoff (M)