EVENTS

TROUBLE FOR BRITAIN'S CONSERVATIVES Charges that Margaret Thatcher's son made a fortune from arms-sales commissions while she was prime minister threaten to overshadow the annual conference of the governing Conservative Party. Aides yesterday said that Lady Thatcher would go ahead with plans to appear at the four-day conference today, its opening day. The controversy surrounding Mark Thatcher appeared likely to grow - underlining the tarnished image of Britain's governing party after 15 unbroken years in office. In the past year, Prime Minister John Major has fallen below the unpopularity ratings that prompted a party revolt in November 1990 that forced Thatcher out of office. Mr. Major's ratings have improved, but the party continues to trail Labour under a new leader, Tony Blair. Shuttle gets bonus day

The radar aboard Endeavour scanned ocean currents near the Antarctic Circle yesterday as scientists worked to make the most of an extra day in space. Endeavour had been scheduled to land in Florida yesterday after 10 days, but NASA extended the mission until today so the radar could conduct additional Earth mapping. As of Sunday, the $366 million US and European radar had collected nearly 52 miles of taped data.

Typhoon disrupts Taiwan

Typhoon Seth battered Taiwan for the second day yesterday, killing five people and disrupting celebrations of the island's national day, police said. Torrential rains and winds of up to 86 m.p.h. forced authorities to postpone until today the colorful parades marking National Day, which commemorates the Nationalists' seizure of power in China in 1911.

Denver school strike

Teachers in Denver unhappy with their salaries and undaunted by threats of jail voted Sunday night to strike after last-ditch negotiations with the city school district failed. The vote Sunday night was 65.4 percent rejecting a proposed contract, 34 percent accepting, and the rest abstaining, officials said. The last time Denver's teachers walked off the job was in 1969, a strike that lasted 14 days.

German Greens seek support

The ecologist Greens, whose hopes of ousting Chancellor Helmut Kohl have been battered by opinion polls, urged voters a week before Germany's elections to unite behind a new leftist alliance. In Cologne Sunday at their last big rally before the Oct. 16 poll, the Greens tried to mobilize support for the coalition they seek with the bigger Social Democrats.

Nobel medicine prize

Two Americans, Alfred Gilman and Martin Rodbell, won the Nobel Medicine Prize for their discovery of G-proteins and their role in showing how the human body's cells communicate with each other. The award was announced in Stockholm yesterday.