Monday, December 23, 1985
International
Winnie Mandela was arrested by the South African police after she defied a ban imposed Saturday forbidding her to enter Soweto, the huge segregated black township near Johannesburg. The order for her exclusion from Soweto relaxed previous restrictions on her activities in force since 1977, which exiled her to the remote town of Brandfort. Her lawyers said he had been taken to detention in Krugersdorp, which is southwest of Johannesburg.
Moscow's proposal for a moratorium on nuclear testing is a potentially positive development, some Reagan Administration officials said despite the public rejection by the Administration. Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader, proposed in a letter dated Dec. 5 that the United States join a moratorium on the underground nuclear testing.
Signs that Soviet leaders disagree on foreign and domestic policies have been taken by Western diplomats as indicating that Mikhail S. Gorbachev's power is not absolute. They say the Soviet leader has had to retreat or compromise on a number of issues.
Tens of thousands of Filipinos greeted Corazon C. Aquino as she brought her presidential campaign to Negros Island in the southern Philippines. She traveled to the site where 21 protesting farmers were killed by security forces in September and told a rally that "like you, I am a victim of the Marcos regime."
A big drop in China's grain harvest from last year was reported in Peking. The Government said the 1985 harvest would probably be about 53 million tons lower than the record 1984 crop of 407 million tons. It was largest one-year crop decline since the Communists took power in 1949, but there is no food shortage.
Ways to restore Peru's economy are being pursued by the United States, despite its distress over the new nationalist rhetoric and radical economic policies of the the five-month-old Government of President Alan Garcia Perez, a Social Democrat. Washington seems anxious to avoid an open clash with his Government, local and foreign officials in Lima said.
National
The employer of a deliveryman accused of trying to sell documents to the Soviet Union appears to have violated Government rules requiring the thorough destruction of classified material, according to Steven Garfinkel, head of the Information Security Oversight Office. He said procedures attributed to the Acme Reporting Company of Washington did not comply with a Federal directive concerning document disposal.
Public power agencies are to be sold to private operators if Congress approves a proposal in President Reagan's budget for the fiscal year 1987. The Administration would put up for sale the Bonneville Power Administration and three similar agencies that provide electric power to millions of people in the West, Southwest and Southeast.
The farm bill is a $52 billion gamble that the country's agricultural troubles can be cured with lower prices and bigger Government paychecks, it defenders and critics say. It is a gamble, they say, that price reductions for American commodities can stimulate enough foreign buying to reduce burdensome surpluses and provide something closer to full use of the 2.3 million farms that make up the vast American agricultural establishment. Economists believe the cost of the new bill has been underestimated. They believe far more farmers are likely to apply for its benefits than was anticipated.
An influx of Central American aliens has followed increasing efforts of religious groups to designate American cities as sanctuaries for them, according to Federal officials. Sacramento, Calif., last week became the 12th city to declare itself a sanctuary. San Francisco's Board of Supervisors is to consider a similar declaration Monday.