News In Brief

Dramatic offer made to urge Bonner's releaseWashington

A group of 55 Western scientists from 13 countries, including six Nobel Prize winners, say they are willing to trade places with Dr. Yelena Bonner, wife of dissident Andrei Sakharov, if that will convince Soviet officials to let her go abroad for medical help.

The offer was made quietly July 31 in a telegram to Soviet leader Konstantin U. Chernenko and was being publicized only because the Soviets have not responded. Under the offer, pairs of volunteers would spend a week each in the Soviet Union to serve as ''good faith witnesses'' for the Sakharovs.

Sakharov reportedly went on a hunger strike May 2 to try to convince the Soviet government to let Mrs. Bonner go abroad for treatment of eye and heart troubles. The Soviets have turned her down, claiming she would use the trip for anti-Soviet propaganda.