News In Brief

Helms blocks Senate panel in vote on genocide treaty

Sen. Jesse Helms (R) of North Carolina blocked a Senate Foreign Relations Committee vote Wednesday on the long-delayed genocide treaty, but the panel's chairman, Sen. Charles H. Percy (R) of Illinois, said he would try again today. The administration is hoping for full ratification by the Senate before its scheduled adjournment Oct. 4.

Mr. Percy attempted to press the issue to a vote, but Mr. Helms said the measure was being ''railroaded'' through the committee without giving him time to confer with the administration on two riders he proposes that would reaffirm the supremacy of the Constitution and limit the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice.

The treaty calls for the signatories to make genocide a crime.