April 16, 1994

White House officials who were astonished this week by Senator George J. Mitchell's decision to remove himself from consideration for the Supreme Court confess that they have started virtually from scratch to come up with a nominee. And they have all but abandoned hope that the process of finding a justice will be neat and quick. President Clinton sat down to meet with his advisers about the Court nomination for just over an hour today, his second such meeting since Justice Harry A. Blackmun Jr. announced last week that he intended to retire by the fall.

GATT Pact Is Signed Culminating more than seven years of talks, ministers from 109 countries signed a trade agreement aimed at stimulating exports and slashing tariffs around the world. Page 35. Figure Skater Dies John Curry, the elegant gold-medal winner at the 1976 Winter Olympic Games and a skater who embraced the possibilities of dance, was 44 years old. Page 50. Strife Crushing Armenia Armenia is in desperate straits, cut off by an economic blockade and with many of its residents fleeing because of the ethnic war over an enclave in neighboring Azerbaijan. Page 3.

For years, radio talk shows have been sending messages to Congress. Now they are sending candidates. In no fewer than nine races, radio hosts are taking off their headsets and taking to the hustings, hoping to convert their listeners to voters.

The F-15 fighter pilots who mistakenly shot down two American Blackhawk helicopters over northern Iraq on Thursday gave no warning before firing because the rules of engagement in effect did not require it, the Pentagon said today. Defense Secretary William J. Perry, at a Pentagon news conference today, acknowledged the failure to issue the warning. Pentagon officials also said the electronic system designed to identify aircraft as friend or foe apparently was not operating on the helicopters.

Defying NATO and United Nations warnings, Serbian nationalist forces renewed their offensive against the Muslim enclave of Gorazde today, and were reported to be on the verge of overrunning it. The Serbian forces seized critical points overlooking the riverfront town, and their commanders called on the Bosnian Army defenders to surrender. A report by Serbia's official news agency said the Bosnian Serb army had offered to protect the estimated 65,000 soldiers and civilians, most of them Muslims, inside the enclave.