BELARUS BIRTH RATE DOWN 50 PERCENT AFTER CHERNOBYL.

Belarus foreign minister Ulazdimir Syanko told the UN General Assembly session September 25 that his country’s birth rate had fallen 50 percent, genetic diseases are on the rise, and the incidence of thyroid cancer among children has increased many-fold as a result of the April 1986 nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. More than 20 percent of the national budget, according to Syanko, now goes to deal with the after-effects of the accident. Syanko said that an international conference, with the participation of UNESCO would be held next March in Minsk, which he hoped would step up efforts to study the after-effects of radioactive fallout and improve efforts to mitigate its consequences. (10)

Despite "Correction," Ukrainian Reform Still on Course, says Marchuk.