News In Brief

Jailed ANC leader rejects offer of freedom

Jailed black nationalist leader Nelson Mandela has rejected an offer of freedom which was conditional on his living in one of South Africa's black tribal homelands, his lawyer said Sunday. Mandela, head of the outlawed African National Congress, has served nearly 20 years of a life sentence imposed for sabotage and plotting violent revolution.

In a related development, Allister Sparks, South African-based correspondent for the Washington Post and the London Observer, said Friday the government had dropped charges against him of violating national press laws. Sparks was charged last November with quoting a ''banned person'' - Mandela's wife Winnie.