In the World

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - In the latest move by the Zimbabwean government against the opposition in advance of runoff elections on June 27, the police arrested two prominent politicians yesterday in their homes, opposition officials said.

Arthur Mutambara was picked up by police at his home in the capital, Harare, on charges of writing an article that the police said was false and prejudicial to the state, his lawyer said. In the April 20 article in the independent newspaper, the Standard, Mutambara accused the governing party of seeking to intimidate its opponents.

Eric Matinenga, a lawyer and newly elected member of Parliament from the opposition party, was also arrested in his rural home in Manicaland province, bringing to 12 the number of opposition members of Parliament arrested since the March 29 election, a spokesman for the opposition said.

- N.Y. Times News Service

JERUSALEM - The U.S. State Department has reinstated Fulbright grants offered to seven Palestinians in Gaza for advanced study in the United States, reversing a decision to withdraw the scholarships because of an Israeli ban preventing most Palestinians from leaving Gaza.

After word of the grant withdrawals got out, senior American and Israeli officials expressed outrage, saying that training ambitious and talented young people under Fulbright grants was one of the ways to help blunt the appeal of radical forces in Palestinian society.

Maj. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli Defense Ministry's office of civilian affairs, said the Gazans would be granted permits after individual security checks.

- N.Y. Times News Service