News In Brief

More appeals seek release of Sakharov and wife

The stepson of Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov arrived here Thursday to appeal to the Japanese people for the welfare of his parents. Alexei Semyonov said he planned to spend a week contacting Japanese scholars, politicians, and human rights activists. He told reporters he wanted Japan to put pressure on Moscow so that Sakharov and his wife, Elena Bonner, could leave the Soviet Union for medical treatment.

Semyonov and other members of the Sakharov family in the United States have offered a $10,000 reward to the first person who can put them in direct contact with the dissident.

In Sheffield, England, the Socialist International appealed to the Soviet Union to release Sakharov and his wife. The organization, made up of socialist democratic parties, issued the call at the end of a two-day meeting led by the British Labour Opposition leader, Neil Kinnock, and attended by politicians from more than 30 countries.