News In Brief

Head of sciences academy calls for US to cut A-arms

The time is ripe for a president to seek deep cuts in nuclear weapons ''and take other steps that will reduce the danger of nuclear war,'' National Academy of Sciences president Frank Press said Tuesday.

''The president who reads the public readiness for these kinds of actions and who acts on it will secure his place in history,'' Mr. Press said in his annual report to the academy's membership.

Press, who served as President Carter's science adviser, said that while the international situation is bleak, there is a growing public uneasiness about the arms race and a lack of progress in arms control.