October 18, 2004

Montclair, NJ, has been struggling to sift through fallout and move on in two weeks since two star players on high school football team were charged with raping another student; town is finding out how difficult and divisive issues are; many people who know suspects, 17-year-old senior and 15-year-old junior, find it hard to believe they kidnapped 15-year-old sophomore, took her to park and raped her, as police say; photos (M)

Texas, with five of 35 most competitive House races in country, seen as linchpin of Republicans' national strategy to maintain or expand slim hold in House; five Texas Democratic incumbents have been split from their constituents by redistricting, forced to campaign in unfamiliar territory; redistricting has prompted one House Democrat to switch parties and another to retire; nationally, more Republican incumbents than Democrats are retiring, and Democrats hope to pick up some of these seats, especially in Pennsylvania, Washington and Connecticut; Republicans see Texas as their insurance policy against any potential losses; Rep Tom DeLay, who created firestrom in engineering the redistricting, says he expects new lines to result in up to seven new Republican seats; independent experts do not agree; they say Pres Bush has been polarizing figure, even in his home state, and they expect one or more of endangered Democrats to survive; some House races in Texas described; photos; map (M)

Legal combat over fundamental issue of who can vote is recurring in virtually every battleground state, in what experts say is fast becoming most litigious, lawyer-fraught election in history; clashes follow familiar script; Republicans are suspicious of urban political machines and worried about record levels of new registrations in many swing states; they say Democrats have abetted fraud; Democrats cite bitter history of efforts to deny minority and low-income voters the ballot; they contend Republicans are trying to suppress the vote; unparalleled legal preparations are being fueled by memories of 2000, and also by huge surge in voter registration in swing states, much of it in predominantly Democratic areas; lawyers recruited by both parties and by independent groups are flooding into Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and other swing states; photo (M)

Effort is under way in Europe to train clerics to minister to growing population of Muslims in Europe, in hope of stanching migration of clerics who are beholden to foreign interests and, in some cases, full of hate and capable of terrorist acts; perceived threat is so great that some European governments closely monitor activities and sermons of their Muslim clerics; France has expelled more than dozen Muslim clerics for violations of human rights or public order since 2001; in Italy, Senegalese-born imam was expelled after calling for suicide bombings and declaring 'blood pact' with Osama bin Laden; Britian is charging militant Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, supporter of Osama bin Laden, with terrorism offenses, stalling American effort to extradite him to United States; creating army of learned, law-abiding, Europeanized imams will not be easy because in Europe, government involvement in religion can be seen as violation of privacy and human rights; photos; map (M)

Corey Dillon ran for 105 yards and 2 touchdowns as New England beat Seattle, 30-20, for its 20th straight victory. It set up a showdown next week in Foxboro, Mass., between two of the N.F.L.'s three remaining undefeated teams, the Patriots and the Jets. The third unbeaten team, the Eagles, had little trouble against the injury-depleted Panthers in a 30-8 victory. Michael Vick led the Falcons (5-1) past the Chargers, 21-20. Daunte Culpepper threw for five scores as Minnesota beat New Orleans. COMPLETE COVERAGE, PAGES D7-D10