FOREIGN MINISTRY: BAN ON ADOPTIONS BY FOREIGNERS VIOLATES WORLDNORMS.

Foreign ministry spokesman Tatyana Smirnova said thatthe Duma-imposed moratorium on adoptions by foreigners violatedthe UN Convention on Children’s Rights and undermines Russia’sprestige, Vechernyaya Moskva reported July 28. Of the 101,244orphans registered in Russia in 1994, foreigners adopted only2,163; more than 25,000 were sent to the country’s already overcrowdedorphanages, she said.

Clinton to Meri: NATO Expansion is "Irreversible."