News In Brief

US, Cuba reach agreement on 'repatriation' of Marielitos

The United States and Cuba Friday announced an agreement to ''repatriate'' some 2,746 Cubans to Havana - individuals the Reagan administration says are criminals and mental patients who came to the US in 1980 boatlift from the Cuban port of Mariel.

The administration says that the agreement allows for resumption of normal emigration of Cubans to the US, but it ''does not signal any change in US policy toward Cuba.'' The step is expected to pave the way for up to 3,000 former political prisoners and 20,000 other Cubans to apply for US visas annually.