INTERNATIONAL University Daily Kansan / Tuesday, April 28, 1992 9 INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS Washington IMF to admit ex-Soviet republics Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics won entry yesterday into the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and gained access to billions of dollars in Western aid to help rescue economies shattered by 70 years of communism. "Today, we witness a far-reaching turning point in the history of the IMF and the World Bank," said Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady. As full members, the former republics will receive more than $6.5 billion in loans over the next 12 months. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar said that the transition from communism to capitalism might not be completed until the end of the century. London Commons elect woman speaker The House of Commons broke a 700-year tradition yesterday, electing Betty Boothroyd, a Labor Party lawnmaker and former chorus girl, to wear the black robes of the Speaker of the House. Boothroyd, 62, was elected when the Commons sat for the first time since the Conservative Party won a fourth-consecutive victory in national elections April 9. Its majority was slashed from 88 to 21. In a 172-238 vote Boothroyd defeated the former Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Brooke, a Conservative lawmaker. She is the first Speaker from outside the governing party since World War II. Boothroid is one of 60 women in the 651-member Commons. She had total backging from Labor and picked up key support from about 70 Conservative rank-and-file lawmakers who liked her style as a deputy minister in the previous Parliament. From The Associated Press Progress made in Mideast talks The Associated Press Israel offers elections to Palestinians; Syria lifts restrictions on Jews WASHINGTON — Mideast peace talks resumed yesterday with Israel offering to hold elections among Palestinians in the territories, and Syria making the conciliatory gesture of lifting restrictions on its Jewish community. Israeli representative Benjamin Netanyahu called the offer of "pilot municipal elections" on the West Bank and Gaza the largest experiment in democracy in the Arab world. Palestinian representative Hanan Ashrawi, who in past rounds accused Israel of stalling, said this time there was a possibility of progress. The talks will be held through Thursday and should resume in Rome within a few weeks, Netanyahu, a close aide to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, said. "Today we began a real discussion," he said. Even so, the State Department, playing host to the negotiations again, said it expected no quick breakthroughs on Palestinian self-rule or other issues in the fifth round of talks since October. "This is going to be a hard, step-by-step process," representative Margaret Tutuwier said as Israeli negotiators met with a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation and, separately, with Syrian and Lebanese groups. Pakistani representative Ashrawi said her delegation had received and would study Israel's proposal to begin municipal elections among the 1.7 million Pakistani Arabs. The idea is to choose leaders to work out arrangements for Pakistaniians to take control of their own day-to-day economic, judicial, educational and other affairs. She said the Israeli proposal was not a complete plan and failed to address Palestinian demands for elections leading to a transfer of authority in the disputed territories. She con- denned Shamir for saying Israel would never give up the West Bank and Gaza. But she said serious issues were presented in the morning session. The other key issues are the Arabs return to recognize the Jewish state and Israel's land on land lost by Jordan, Syria and Egypt in the 1967 Six-Day war. "We were encouraged by the fact that there is a distinct possibility of engaging and of carrying out serious and substantive progress, of ensuring serious progress at this stage," she said. Giving the talks a positive spin, the White House and State Department announced that Syria's 4,500 Jews would be permitted to travel abroad and build no property. The decision was made Saturday by President Hafez Assad, who is looking to the United States to fill a vacuum caused by the disintegration of the Soviet Union, his principal arms supplier. Moscow's health care workers strike The Associated Press MOSCOW - Thousands of doctors, nurses and other health workers stopped prescribing medicine yesterday and threatened a full-scale strike unless the government raised salaries and bought more medical equipment and supplies. There refusal to issue prescriptions is the first phase of a three-stage walkout by Moscow's 340,000 health workers, said Vyacheslav Mikulin, head of the strike committee. He said that at least half of all Moscow medical facilities took part in the first phase and that next week they would refuse to provide any medical aid except in emergencies. A full-scale strike is planned for May 10. "it's getting to the point where we can't afford the materials and equipment we need to serve our patients," said Zinaia Rogozhonova, an orthopedic specialist at Dental Polyclinic No. 23 in downtown Moscow. *Raising salaries is not the main question. The materials we work with get more expensive. Yesterday's action in Moscow capped two weeks of nationwide protests and strikes by some Russian health workers, who are complaining of mislyst salaries, decrepit equipment and shortages of basic supplies. As Russia's centrally planned economy gives way to market reforms, the free but abysmal health care system is rapidly deteriorating. Some private facilities have recently opened, but few can afford them. Strike leaders said their actions were prompted by the rising cost of living and sharp cutbacks in government spending for health care. Health workers have complained that they are among the lowest-paid Russian professionals. They say they make about 920 rubs monthly, less than the average worker's salary of 960 rubs, which is about $9. "It costs 57 rubles to buy a roll of cotton, and what's a dentist's office without cotton?" asked Ella Zamikhovskaya, the polyclinic's deputy head doctor. Fifty-seven rubles equals about 50 cents. Muslims ignore cease-fire accord The Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan — Rival Muslim guerrillas battled to a stand-off yesterday over the southern approach to Kabul and ignored a reported cease-fire agreement as they fought for control of the Afghan capital. A convoy carrying members of a guerrilla-led interim government that supported more moderate factions left Pakistan for the 120-mile journey to Kabul. The rebel leaders planned to formally replace the fallen regime of President Najibullah. A truce that Pakistan's government said was agreed to between the leaders of radical fundamentalists and more moderate guerrillas went unheeded — perhaps in part because word had not reached the fighters. Roughly 90 percent of the city was under the control of a coalition commanded by Ahmed Shah Masood. But it failed to dislodge the radical fighters of his bitter rival, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, from their strongholds. Masood and Hekmatyar both want to establish an Islamic state, but they differ on how strict the theocracy should be. In Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, a representative for the Foreign Ministry, Jawed Hussein, said the leaders agreed to a truce. He did not release any details, but Pakistan's state news agency said the agreement was mediated by Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and senior Saudi officials. 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