A:visited and Layers

Hi guys,
for freference the site i am working on is : www.bookmakers.tv (it looks like some images are missing, but my client wanted that for now until he gets more content)
two questions :
A:VISITED :

  1. I have created a site using style sheets. I have styles for a:link, a:hover and a:visited. now they all work fine and dandy, but when I click on one of the links that has this style applied to it, the a:hover does not work any more on that link . . . .how can i retain the hover effect once the link has been clicked on ?

and . . .

LAYERS :
2) I have a layer at the top of the page, but cannot get rid of the invisible border around it, so it appears that there is a gap all around the layer . . .

As always, help much appreciated.
Cheers