DUMA READY TO COMPROMISE ON BUDGET?

Russian finance minister Aleksandr Livshits has welcomed the October 14 recommendation by a Duma working group that the draft 1997 federal budget be sent back to the government and from there submitted directly to a joint government/parliament conciliation commission. Livshits said this should speed up the adoption process. The alternative — requiring the government to submit a fresh draft to a plenary session of parliament — could have taken much longer, he said. (Interfax, Kommersant-daily, October 15)

Japanese Fishing Boat Seized.