News In Brief

US, Soviets agree to ease some travel restrictions

The United States and the Soviet Union reached an agreement Wednesday that will facilitate the travel of participants in educational exchange programs, expedite the issuance of certain categories of visas, and improve traveling conditions of diplomats in the two countries. The accord is the third area in the past two weeks in which the two sides could claim progress.

The first was an agreement to expand the US-Soviet ''hot line,'' announced July 17; the second, last week, is the administration's ending of a 41/2-year ban on Soviet commercial fishing in American waters, which was imposed after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.