Republican Senator Norm Coleman is withdrawing 650 ballot challenges that his campaign lodged in the U.S. Senate recount.  That matches the gesture made a day earlier by his opponent, Democrat Al Franken, who withdrew 633 of his challenges on Wednesday.

Coleman's lawyer, Fritz Knaak, says the Coleman campaign is likely to withdraw more challenges but would prefer to do it under terms agreed to with the Franken campaign.  The attorney for the Democrat has maintained that both sides should be able to withdraw challenges independently.

Meanwhile, the state canvassing board scheduled a meeting for December 12 to consider options for absentee ballots wrongly rejected.  Franken seeks to include such ballots in the count.