News In Brief

East Germany to improve the mails - and Bonn pays

Bonn is to pay for an improvement in East German postal and telephone services which West Germans have criticized as slow and unreliable. After more than a year of talks, East Germany agreed Tuesday to speed up the mail, cut losses of postal items, relax import rules, improve direct-dial telephone links, and install more telephone and telex lines.

Bonn said it would pay $80 million a year from 1983 to 1990 for the extra services, an increase on its present bill of $35 million.