News In Brief

Restricted liberties fall on 42% of world population

Some 42 percent of the world's population lives in countries where governments suppress civil liberties and political rights, a 1 percent increase over 1983, a new survey showed Wednesday.

The report by Freedom House, a nonpartisan organization that monitors freedom around the world, said impressive gains in freedom in Latin American countries in 1984 were offset by severe setbacks in several African nations.

Among the most oppressed nations were the Soviet Union, Ethiopia, Afghanistan , Bulgaria, Cambodia, North Korea, Laos, Iraq, and Chad, it said.