EVENTS

ITALY ON ROAD TO LANDMARK ELECTION Italy has embarked on an uncertain road to general elections March 27 under a complicated new voting system, after President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro finally dissolved the country's scandal-tainted Parliament. About a third of the members of the outgoing legislature are being investigated for corruption in ever-widening inquiries that have destroyed the credibility of the parties that dominated political life after World War II. The path for early elections was cleared when Prime Minister Carlo Azeglio Ciampi submitted his resignation last Thursday after a parliamentary debate exposed deep divisions over the timing of the long-awaited polls. The election date, the latest admissible under the constitution, was set at a two-hour Cabinet meeting Sunday. The new system is meant to foster open government and a clear choice between distinct political blocs rather than the myriad parties now represented in the 630-seat Italian lower house. Cold intensifies in East

An Arctic blast that swept across the eastern half of the United States brought record lows and freezing winds, turning roads into treacherous sheets of ice for motorists who were able to start their cars.

Record lows were felt from the Great Lakes to the Carolinas Sunday, and still colder temperatures were forecast for yesterday. Up to 18 inches of new snow was expected in State College, Pa. Neo-Nazi attackers on trial

American luge racer Duncan Kennedy yesterday identified two young neo-Nazis accused of attacking him outside a German bar and denied testimony that he provoked the assault.

The two are accused of leading about 15 skinheads who kicked and punched Kennedy outside an Oberhof nightclub last Oct. 29 after they insulted his black teammate, Robert Pipkins.

The US team was in Oberhof, near Suhl in eastern Germany, to train for the Olympics. KKK protests holiday

Hundreds of counterprotesters surrounded Ku Klux Klan demonstrations that were held this weekend to protest the federal holiday yesterday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

In Springfield, Ill., about 300 chanting counterprotesters converged on the Capitol Sunday and drowned out about 65 KKK members who made speeches and gave Nazi salutes.

In Denver, more than 100 police officers ringed the state Capitol for a Nationalist Movement rally that drew 19 members of the KKK. About 15 counterprotesters showed up.

The Columbus, Ohio, chapter of the NAACP planned to respond with demonstrations today at the homes of several Klan leaders.

Crimea presidential runoff

A runoff presidential election will be held in Crimea between the pro-Russian front-runner and a regional leader who wants the strategic peninsula to remain in Ukraine, officials said yesterday.

Yuri Meshkov, who wants Crimea returned to Russia, got 40 percent of the votes cast in the autonomous republic's first presidential election on Sunday, according to preliminary results.

Parliament speaker Nikolai Bagrov, who wants the peninsula to remain part of Ukraine, came in second with 18 percent. Angolan rebels killed

Angolan government troops repulsed UNITA rebel attacks around the besieged northern city of Malange, killing more than 50 guerrillas, state radio said yesterday.

The fighting took place as the two sides prepared to resume talks in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, on settling nearly two decades of civil war. Fresh fighting in Bosnia

Bosnia's warring factions accused each other of pressing ahead with fighting yesterday, a day ahead of the latest peace talks in Geneva.

Muslim-controlled Sarajevo radio said Serb shelling of the central Bosnian town of Olovo continued overnight, while Bosnian government forces around the Serb-held town of Brcko in the north of the country also came under fire.