TOKYO MISJUDGED OIL SPILL.

Japanese prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto admitted yesterday that his government had misjudged the severity of an oil spill from a wrecked Russian tanker. The government had erred, he said, in wrongly believing both that the bow of the ship was easily salvageable and that the spilled oil would freeze up and be easily recoverable. The tanker’s rear portion is still leaking and at least 4,500 tons of oil are thought to have spilled into the sea. (AP, January 21)

Georgia Bars Russian Military Transports.