News In Brief

Soviet dissident Yelena Bonner arrived in Boston Saturday and was reunited with family members after a six-year separation. Mrs. Bonner is the wife of Nobel Prize-winning dissident Andrei Sakharov, who had staged hunger strikes to pressure the Soviet government to allow Bonner to seek medical attention in the West. She will stay at the home of her daughter, Tatyana Yankelevich, in Newton, Mass., a Boston suburb. Bonner had signed an agreement with Soviet authorities not to talk to reporters while she is in the West. She is to undergo treatment in a Boston hospital.

Bonner's son, Alexei Semyenov, told the Boston Globe Saturday that she would try to place a call to her husband as soon as possible. He was quoted as saying that medical treatment might be pointless if she was in low spirits from failing to reach Dr. Sakharov.

Mr. Semyenov said if his mother were not well enough to make a return trip as her 90-day visa was about to expire, his family believed Soviet authorities would extend the visa.

A US State Department official said Friday night that in light of the agreement not to speak publicly, the government would not invite Bonner to the White House. But he added that if she indicates an interest in meeting with officials, she will be welcome.

During Bonner's stay in Italy, she met with Italian Premier Bettino Craxi and had an audience with Pope John Paul II.

In the Soviet Union, the official news agency Tass said Sakharov was being treated in a clinic, but was in generally good health.

Israel sends envoy to US to discuss Pollard spy affair

Prime Minister Shimon Peres sent Cabinet Minister Moshe Arens on a secret mission to the United States to discuss the case of US Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard accused of spying for Israel, government sources said Sunday. Israeli officials refused to say whom Arens met, but they did say Israeli and US officials have been holding contacts to set the ground rules for US Justice Department officials to question the Israelis believed linked to the Pollard case.

Nicaraguan leader assails US policy of aiding rebels

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega Saavedra called on the world community Sunday to force the United States to stop ``mining the airspace of Central America.'' Ortega alleged that the US has been supplying surface-to-air missiles to Nicaraguan rebels. Ortega would not answer questions prompted by US allegations that Cubans were among the 14 people killed when the rebels, known as ``contras,'' shot down a Soviet-made helicopter near the Honduran border last week.

The US said last week that Cubans in Nicaragua have increasingly taken on combat roles. Assistant Secretary of State Elliot Abrams told a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee Thursday that there were some 2,500 Cuban military personnel in Nicaragua helping the Nicaraguan Army fight the US-backed contras.

On Sunday, the US State Department cited newly declassified statements by Nicaraguan defectors as evidence to back its claim that Cubans are deeply involved in combat roles in Nicaragua.

Pentagon considers basing anti-terrorism unit in Europe

The Pentagon is considering basing in Europe a small liaison team from the elite anti-terrorism Delta Force, but would not move ``actual operatives'' outside the United States, informed sources said. The sources were responding to a report by NBC, which said the Pentagon wanted to expand the Delta Force and permanently base ``a large detachment'' in Europe. The commando unit is currently based at Fort Bragg, N.C. No final decision on basing a small liaison team in Europe has been made, the sources said.

Poland asks universities to review faculty credentials

Poland's Communist government, which recently ordered more than 40 senior academicians fired from their posts, has told universities to review the political and academic credentials of all faculty members, officials said. A Ministry of Higher Education spokesman said the review was a routine procedure that will be conducted by university rectors on the basis of the revised Higher Education Law.

Academic sources have said they fear many teachers who support the banned Solidarity trade movement will be fired.

For first time UN condemns terrorist acts as criminal

UN General Assembly members have voted 118-1 to condemn all acts of terrorism as criminal. Cuba was the one dissenting vote, Israel and Burkina Faso abstained, and Iran was one of 37 states not participating.

US delegate Robert Rosenstock said the vote was crucial because it was the first time that assembly delegates agreed on a broad condemnation of international terrorism.

And the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution urging all nations to aid Angola in rebuilding facilities destroyed in a series of South African raids.

Pope closes synod, agrees to publish findings of bishops

Pope John Paul II closed the special two-week lon synod of bishops yesterday. The synod was called to assess the effects of changes introduced by the Second Vatican Council 20 years ago. By an overwhelming majority, the bishops adopted a 14-page report on the synod's findings and recommendations. In a surprise move applauded by the bishops, the pope agreed to publish the documents as approved by the prelates without any change.

Comic-strip artists raise $41,000 for Africa aid

About $41,000 in donations has been received thus far as a result of the Thanksgiving Day effort by comic-strip artists to promote the issue of world hunger, a spokeswoman said. More than 175 syndicated cartoonists broached the subject of hunger in their strips, dubbing the project Comic Relief.

Cyprus puzzles over the case of the missing flowerpots

Flowerpot theft is a mystery element in Cyprus crime statistics, a criminologist, Michael Hadjidemetriou, said recently. ``In Britain, the bigger incidence of unreported crime is stolen milk bottles,'' he said. ``In Cyprus, everyone complains about flowerpots being pinched.''

Qaddafi urges war of liberation in southern Africa

Libyan leader Col. Muammar Qaddafi arrived Saturday and told a meeting of Ghanaian cadres that ``the war of liberation'' in southern Africa would be intensified next year, and that there would be no negotiation with the South African government.