National News Briefs

An annual state-by-state report on the conditions facing children in the United States says that between 1985 and 1992, the well-being of the nation's children declined in five key areas and improved in five others.

Among the findings in the Kids Count Data Book , a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore, are a decline in the number of infant and child deaths during that period. But the data also show a rise in the number of violent teenage deaths and in the number of youths...