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The U.S. announced that it had moved a cache of more than half a ton of uranium -- enough to make three dozen nuclear bombs -- from Kazakhstan to the U.S. in a top-secret operation code-named Sapphire. Kazakhstan had previously agreed to relinquish the nuclear arsenal it inherited from the former Soviet Union, but it had also taken charge of several nuclear stockpiles. U.S. officials were concerned that the cash-starved former Soviet republic would be unable to safeguard the dangerous material. The nuclear stockpile will be stored at the Department of Energy's Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
A $200 Million Thank-You
President Clinton offered $200 million in new aid to Ukraine, rewarding the country both for its progress toward a free market and for its politically difficult decision to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Clinton announced a $100 million, no-strings-attached emergency grant for importing food and fuel and a $100 million grant for student exchanges and business assistance. The new money, if approved by the incoming Congress, raises Ukraine's total U.S. assistance for 1994-95 to $900 million and would make the country the U.S.'s fourth largest aid recipient.
Italy Probe Reaches PM
Italian magistrates told Silvio Berlusconi he is under investigation for corruption charges, even as the Prime Minister was host to an international conference in Naples on organized crime. Berlusconi allegedly authorized the payment of bribes to tax officials by officers of Fininvest, a $7 billion media-and-retail conglomerate he formerly headed and still owns. The Prime Minister denied the charges and said he would continue his six-month-old administration, but he also offered to sell part of Fininvest, something he had previously refused to do.
Stampede in India Kills 113
When cane-wielding police in the central Indian city of Nagpur charged a crowd of protesters, 113 people were trampled to death in the ensuing stampede; an additional 500 people were injured. The protesters were poor members of the Gowari tribe who were demanding official recognition as an underprivileged group to get better education and employment benefits from the government.
BUSINESS
Wall Street Recovers, Sort Of
The stock market took a steep dive early last Tuesday, plunging 91.52 points -- the biggest one-day loss in 10 months. Investors, worried about the effect of the Fed's latest interest-rate hike on corporate earnings and on the economy in general, shifted money to the bond market. At week's end, however, the Dow had gained back 30 points and closed at 3708.
The 27,000-Year Glitch
The controversy over a defect in Intel Corp.'s popular Pentium microchip heated up as scientists and engineers accused the company of being too casual in its response to the problem. According to a Nov. 7 article in the Electrical Engineering Times, the flaw in the chip can cause computers to reach incorrect answers in complex division problems approximately once in every 37 billion calculations. Intel discovered the defect last summer, and has since corrected it, but it is offering free replacement chips only to customers with provably esoteric needs. "The chip is fine," said a company spokesman. "Statistically, the average person might see this problem once in every 27,000 years."