News In Brief

Reports that Sakharov passed on are unconfirmed

The Sunday Times of London, citing ''reliable but unofficial sources in Moscow,'' said that Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei Sakharov passed on Thursday night in a hospital in his exile city of Gorky. There was no offical Soviet confirmation of the report. US State Department and White House spokesmen said Sunday they had heard nothing about it.

Tatyana Yankelevich and Alexei Semyonov, Sakharov's stepchildren, both said Saturday that they believed Mr. Sakharov was still alive.

On Saturday, the president of Home Box Office said the pay-cable network would advance the showing of a movie on Sakharov by three months to June 20.