MINERS CONTINUE PROTESTS.

Thousands of striking Russian coal miners continued their protests yesterday in support of their demands for the payment of overdue wages. In several places, strikers have added political demands for the government’s dismissal and the impeachment of the president to their initial economic demands. The governor of Kemerovo Oblast, Aman Tuleev, warned the government yesterday that the situation in the Kuzbass towns of Anzhero-Sudzhensk and Prokopyevsk, where miners have been blocking the railway for five days, could easily get out of control. Tuleev said he had sent a message to President Boris Yeltsin, urging him to take emergency measures to stabilize what he described as an explosive situation beyond the power of regional leaders to deal with. Miners in the Far North and in the North Caucasus also continued yesterday to block local railway transport. (Russian agencies, May 19)

RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT PLEDGES TO PROTECT RIGHTS OF FOREIGN SHAREHOLDERS.