The World - News from Aug. 1, 1989

East German authorities jailed at least 674 people on political charges in the first half of the year, with twice as many expected to be imprisoned by the year’s end, the West German Justice Ministry reported. It said that most of the prisoners were accused of “interference with state activity,” a charge used to cover various offenses ranging from attempts to flee to the West to scrawling graffiti. The ministry added that one East German was sentenced to 18 years in prison for writing “perestroika will yet free us” on a Soviet monument.