World IN BRIEF : RUSSIA : End of Ban on Foreign Adoptions Is Announced

Russian lawmakers announced the end of a ban on foreign adoptions that had left many children stuck in orphanages for months. The children, including many who had been in the final stages of adoption, have languished in Russian orphanages since March, when President Boris N. Yeltsin signed a new adoption law that allows foreigners to adopt healthy Russian infants. But the law was immediately followed by a ban on foreign adoptions while legislators debated how to implement the new law. Parliamentary spokesman Viktor Parshutkin said that Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin recently signed a decree ending the ban, but the prime minister’s office would not confirm the report.