September 14, 2002

Suit filed in May by Justice Department and private whistle-blowers holds HealthSouth illegally billed Medicare for 'one-on-one' therapy when patients were actually treated in groups, often not by licensed physical therapists; says payment issues were uncovered in 1998 probe by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama, further complicating picture of what top HealthSouth executives knew when issuing profit warning in August 2002; graph of HealthSouth share price (M)

Merrill Lynch's research department suffers new blow with disclosure that former analyst Phua K Young exchanged gifts with Tyco International's former president, L Dennis Kozlowski, while tirelessly recommending Tyco stock to Merrill clients; exchange apparently violated both Merrill policy and securities laws (M)

Joe Drape Big Game on Campus column discusses renewed sense of pride at Notre Dame University, where football team has chance to contend for first time in years; many credit new coach Tyrone Willingham for Notre Dame's early success this season; photos (M)

American military is expanding outwarding from Kandahar in its fight against remnants of Al Qaeda and Taliban in southern Afghanistan, shifting five attack bases in concentric circles from mother base; effort keeps helicopters busy with airborne operations to find arms caches and take prisoners and to ferry construction gear; map; photo (M)

Sales outlook for Lucent Technologies is weak and current sales plunge; its stock sells at record low price; Lucent warns that it will continue to eliminate jobs; company now employs 43,000, down from peak of more than 123,000 two years ago; company's credit and performance suffer as result of telecommunications industry weakness; photo (M)