EVENTS
ARMENIA'S ATTACK SPURS UN DEMAND
Armenia yesterday launched a new attack in its war with Azerbaijan over disputed Nagorno-Karabakh, and the United Nations Security Council demanded that the former Soviet republic cease its latest offensive. On Tuesday, the council called for Armenia to give up its captured territory. Armenian forces have overrun 10 percent of Azerbaijan trying to secure land routes to Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian territory within Azerbaijan. Siberian nuclear leak
Amid inconsistent reports, the Kremlin acknowledged yesterday that a radiation leak in Siberia was Russia's most serious nuclear incident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, but said contamination was minor. As workers scraped up snow and earth from the contaminated area near Tomsk, 1,900 miles east of Moscow, the Nuclear Energy Ministry played down Tuesday's accident and said no one was seriously irradiated. But environmental activists said things were more serious and a senior official in Tomsk said peo ple there were worried and suspicious of the authorities. A Kremlin spokesman said a preliminary assessment would rate the incident as three on the International Atomic Energy Authority's seven-point scale of nuclear mishaps. Chernobyl was a seven. IRS offers extra time
The Internal Revenue Service announced yesterday a new offer for United States taxpayers who can't complete their returns by the April 15 deadline: delay filing and paying for four months. For the first time, taxpayers will be allowed to defer payment of any tax due until Aug. 15 but only if they file a formal request for an extension. That is done by mailing Form 4868 before midnight April 15. The IRS will still assess interest on the unpaid taxes. Name negotiation
Greece and Macedonia announced yesterday that they have agreed to open negotiations to find a compromise over the former Yugoslav republic's name, which has been at the center of a bitter 15-month-old dispute between the Balkan neighbors. Athens argues the name Macedonia implies territorial claims against Greece's own northern Macedonia province. Danube dispute progress
Hungary and Slovakia yesterday moved toward resolving their bitter quarrel over the waters of the Danube river by agreeing to let the International Court of Justice settle the dispute. The Danube feud blew up in 1989 when Hungary pulled out of an agreement with Czechoslovakia to set up a hydroelectric dam project on the river. US elections
In St. Louis, voters elected Democrat Freeman Bosley Jr. as their first black mayor in a landslide over three opponents. In Wisconsin, state legislator Peter Barca defeated a Clinton campaign boss in the Democratic primary Tuesday to fill the US House seat vacated by Defense Secretary Les Aspin after 22 years. Millionaire developer Mark Neumann won the GOP nomination. US carmakers improve
American carmakers are closing the quality gap with imports, according to a study by an automotive market research firm. The J. D. Power & Associates study, released Tuesday, was based on the number and severity of owner-reported problems after five years of ownership. It found only a 2 percent difference for 1988 models between vehicles made by General Motors Corporation, Ford Motor Company, and Chrysler Corporation, and those from Asian companies such as Toyota, Honda, and Nissan. Space station redesign
Russians may help "on an as-needed consulting basis" to redesign the American Space Station Freedom, a White House spokesman said Tuesday. The decision was made after consultation with the Europeans, Canadians, and Japanese, who are partners with the US in the space station. President Clinton has called for a reduction of the orbiting laboratory's predicted $30 billion building and $120 operating costs.
