Thursday, April 8, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section A·Page 7
Nation/World
Yugoslavia closes Kosovo border
The Associated Press
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) — Yugoslav authorities sealed off Kosovo's main border crossings yesterday, preventing ethnic Albanians from leaving as the wave of refugees approached the half-million mark. As NATO stepped up its airstrikes, a Cypriot mediator sought freedom for three captured U.S. soldiers.
Two loud explosions could be heard shortly before midnight last night in the center of Belgrade, and smoke could be seen rising in the direction of the army headquarters. A local resident, reached by telephone, said an army building near the headquarters was hit.
The area is a densely populated part of the capital with numerous apartment houses nearby. Elsewhere, Studio B television also reported that six missiles struck the town of Cuprija, 55 miles south of Belgrade, early today.
Yugoslav media reported explosions late yesterday in Panevo, an industrial town
just north of Belgrade that has been repeatedly targeted during the 15-day NATO campaign.
Serbian television early today reported an attack on Kratjevo, 75 miles south of Belgrade. The missiles struck "mostly on civilian targets," the report said, but no other details were available and it was not possible to independently confirm the reports.
Earlier yesterday, Albania's parliament approved NATO plans to allow 24 U.S. Apache attack helicopters onto their territory — a move that should bolster the alliance's firepower against the Yugoslav tanks and armor that have driven ethnic Albanians from their homes in Kosovo.
after forcing more than 400,000 refugees out to neighboring countries, Yugoslav authorities closed the main exit route on Wednesday without explanation, forcing tens of thousands of people back toward the burned villages they had been escaping from.
German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping warned that the Yugoslavs may be planning to use the civilians in Kosovas as
"human shields" against NATO attack.
In Morini, the crossing point for Kosovo refugees into Albania, the flow of cars and tractors suddenly stopped at 3 a.m., witnesses said. Yugoslav border guards could be seen laying what appeared to be mines and digging fortifications just inside their territory.
Sharping said Yugoslav forces had begun forcing ethnic Albanians back from the border areas into the province. He showed aerial photos that he said showed Serb tanks surrounding a Kosovo village, separating the men and women, and then opening fire on houses.
"The refugees ... were told to return to their places of residence — whatever is left of those places," said Doran Vienneau of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which has been monitoring the border.
The former president of Cyprus, Spyros Kyprianou, began a mission to win the release of three American soldiers seized along the Yugoslav border with Macedonia on March 31. Cyprus, which is not a NATO
Richard Bachman/ KANSAN
member,historically has had close ties with Yuosolvia.
Kyprianou flew to Athens, where he said he was waiting to hear from Belgrade before going to Yugoslavia today.
He said he believed the release of the soldiers was imminent.
Moms with birth defects usually have normal kids
The Associated Press
Women with birth defects have normal babies a surprisingly high 96 percent of the time, a Norwegian study found.
Because many birth defects are at least partly genetic, researchers expected to find more of them among babies whose mothers had defects.
What surprised them was that the difference was so small: Birth defects were seen in 3.8 percent of babies whose mothers had birth defects vs. 2.4 percent of those born to normal mothers.
"It's not the usual finding of everything looks dark for that family," said researcher Rolv Skjaerven of the University of Bergen.
The findings fill a major gap in knowledge for experts who counsel couples about genetic traits, said Donald R. Mattison of Chicago, medical director for the March of Dimes.
"While there is an increased risk, it's at a level many people might feel comfortable with" he said.
The study was published in last Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine. It was based on records of nearly 460,000 females born between 1967 and 1982 in Norway, which maintains a national registry that lists birth defects found in the baby's first five days.
The findings mean that mothers with birth defects are 60 percent more likely than other women to have children with birth defects. But that's 60 percent of a small risk to begin with.
When such birth defects do occur, they are often the same ones that the mothers have, the study found. More than half of the 1,100 mothers had relatively minor defects, such as a clubfoot or a cleft lip or palate.
Unusual claims elicit tax audits
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The computer formula used by the Internal Revenue Service to pick income tax returns for audit rivals a nuclear launch code in its secrecy. But some red flags are known: The self-employed and people claiming unusually high itemized deductions are among those more likely to be audited.
The IRS audits less than 2 percent of the returns it receives and won't disclose precisely how it targets them.
"Basically, what you're going to see is people who have something out of the ordinary on the return," said Mike Salkowski, senior manager at Ernst & Young accounts in Atlanta. "For instance, a high mortgage income deduction and low income."
From the IRS standpoint, the only people who should fear an
audit are those who are trying to audit or cheat that who don't have documentation for their deductions or other claims.
"If you're entitled to a deduction, and you have the records to back it up, by all means you should take it," said IRS representative Don Roberts.
Two-thirds of audited tax returns are picked by IRS computers in Martinsburg, W.Va., using what is called the "discriminant function," or DIF. These are top secret formulas designed to screen for returns that have a higher potential for payment of more taxes.
Other audits are selected through referrals from state and local governments, from criminal cases and by special enforcement programs, such as those aimed at cutting down questionable tax shelters.
Because final audit decisions are made by humans at IRS, Morrow said people who fall
information about what happens and how to appeal an audit is online at
IRS AUDITS
http://www.irs.ustreas.gov Taxpayer Advocate's
Taxpayer Advocate's Office's Problem Resolution program: 1-877-777-4778
into these categories should make sure that their returns are not sloppy and that numbers are not too round, so they appear designed to meet requirements.
Each year, 1 million to 2 million individual returns are audited. The most common is the correspondence audit, in which the taxpayer receives an IRS letter asking for more information about one or two items.
A key reminder for taxpayers: Respond promptly in writing to every IRS letter.
Design changes fuel radar snags in FAA program
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A new $1 billion Federal Aviation Administration computer system is proving to be so slow in tests that it takes at least twice as long as the equipment it is supposed to replace.
Agency officials said the slowness was a result of design changes suggested by technicians and air traffic controllers and were being remedied.
"In making all those changes there were adverse effects on system performance — In other words the system was slowed," said William Shumun, FAA representative. "We are now working to restore the speed of the system to its specifications."
Citing an internal report on tests conducted last month, USA Today reported yesterday that the system, called "Stars," was two to three times slower than existing equipment in displaying aircraft radar positions and responding to air traffic controllers' commands.
It quoted FAA officials who said, until fixed, the new system was unsuitable for use at the nation's busiest airports, where it was needed most.
The first elements of the system were to be installed at Washington's Reagan National Airport by March 31, but the FAA announced in February it would not meet that deadline. No new date has been set.
Peter Challan, the FAA's director of air traffic systems, told the newspaper the agency was working with the manufacturer, Raytheon Co., air traffic controllers and its own engineers to speed up the new computer system. Raytheon officials called the tests unofficial and incomplete.
The Stars system is part of a massive technological upgrade underway with the nation's air traffic system.
The FAA's $1 billion contract with Raytheon calls for upgrading the controller work stations and supporting computers in 173 FAA and 199 Defense Department terminal control facilities, which oversee planes shortly after takeoff or on their initial approach to an airport.
The FAA also is in the process of replacing the computers used by controllers in en route centers, which control planes between terminal control facility$^{a}$
Each process has been plagued by costly delays. The Stars project, for example, is expected to cost $2.2 billion.
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