News In Brief

Did Soviet journalist have some humor up his sleeve?

Tass, normally the voice of the Kremlin for official pronouncements, Monday switched to more offbeat reporting when it mistakenly transmitted album sleeve details from a foreign pop record.

The list of tracks and other details from the album ''Rain Dances,'' by the British group Camel, popped up on the agency's English-language service between a news analysis on the United States and a report from Prague, both more usual Tass fare.

A spokesman at Tass said: ''A comrade has already been ticked off (reprimanded) for using his editing screen for his own use.''