EVENTS
BOSNIAN CONFLICT NOW A YEAR OLD
Sarajevo marked its first anniversary of war April 6 with peace in Bosnia seeming as remote as ever. Bosnia's commander pulled out of talks with Serb and Croat military counterparts because of reported fighting by Serbs encircling Srebrenica. Meanwhile, President Clinton dismissed as "pure politics" the comments of a Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, who predicted that Washington would avoid forceful measures to resolve the fighting in the former Yugoslavia. Mr. Clinton reiterated his intention to pr ess for tougher sanctions against Serbia, which has refused to join Croats and Bosnian Muslims in signing the UN peace plan. Fighting in Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan said April 6 it repelled Armenian troops from the outskirts of the town of Fizuli, south of the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The fighting marked Azerbaijan's first claimed victory in almost a week of heavy combat around Nagorno-Karabakh, a region populated mainly by Christian Armenians but located inside predominantly Muslim Azerbaijan. The UN Security Council scheduled a closed-door meeting April 6 to discuss the fighting at the request of neighboring Turkey, which has cultural and et hnic ties with Azerbaijan. Shuttle launch postponed
Space shuttle Discovery was loaded up and ready to go April 6 on a mission to study the Earth's protective ozone layer, but with only seconds left before liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Fla., the computers said no. Computer data indicated a valve had not closed, but engineers suspect that the valve did close properly and that a bad circuit might be to blame. This is the second time in two weeks that a shuttle countdown has ended abruptly in the final few seconds before launch. Another launch attempt could c ome as early as April 8. Sheikh tried
The sheikh who condemned Egypt's government from a pulpit in New Jersey went on trial in absentia April 6 in Fayoum, Egypt, along with 48 other Muslim fundamentalists. Omar Abdel-Rahman preaches in mosques where suspects in the Feb. 26 bombing of the World Trade Center worshipped. Prosecutors were ordered to find the sheikh and three other defendants to inform them officially of their retrial. The sheikh and the others had been acquitted three years ago of the same charges of organizing an illegal antigo vernment demonstration. Baseball's opening day
The major-league season got under way April 5, with two new expansion franchises the Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies making their National League debuts. Florida made it look easy, beating the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-3, behind the pitching of 45-year-old knuckleballer Charlie Hough. The Rockies, meanwhile, looked like an expansion club, losing to the New York Mets, 3-0. Mets hurler Dwight Gooden recorded a four-hitter, his 22nd career shutout, and retired 17 straight batters at one stretch. Basketball title
North Carolina capitalized on a last-second mistake by Michigan and gave Dean Smith, college basketball's second-winningest coach of all time, his second national championship with a 77-71 victory April 5 in New Orleans. The game wasn't settled until Michigan's Chris Webber called a timeout the Wolverines didn't have with 11 seconds left a mistake that gave North Carolina, then clinging to a two-point lead, two technical foul shots and possession of the ball.