World IN BRIEF : UNITED NATIONS : S. Africa Regains Full Membership

A cheering General Assembly readmitted South Africa, now a non-racial, democratic state, as a full member, ending 20 bitter years of banishment and pariah status because of apartheid. “The long night of diplomatic isolation has finally come to an end,” South African Foreign Minister Alfred Nzo told the assembly. The 184-nation assembly decided by acclamation to seat the new black-majority government of Nelson Mandela that won the nation’s first all-race elections in April. South Africa is a founding member of the United Nations and has remained a U.N. member, but it had been suspended from General Assembly work since 1974.