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To: Alex who wrote (21938)	10/19/1998 8:30:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 116768

bloomberg.com

To: Alex who wrote (21938)	10/19/1998 8:53:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116768

30 Percent of Russians Are Poor Monday, 19 October 1998 M O S C O W (AP) LIVING STANDARDS in Russia are falling even faster than previously believed with almost one in three people now living in poverty, according to discouraging figures released Monday. More than 44 million of Russia's 148 million people live below the poverty line, defined here as less than $32 a month, and 8.4 million are without jobs. And the numbers are likely to climb unless the government comes to grips with the two-month-old economic crisis. Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov's Cabinet was scheduled Tuesday to discuss its budget for the rest of the year, but it has few resources to work with. It is still drafting an economic program to combat the crisis. An International Monetary Fund delegation was en route to Moscow to negotiate the next disbursement of a $22.6 billion bailout package frozen when the crisis hit in mid-August. First Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Maslyukov said the government was also holding loan talks with Germany and Japan. The State Statistics Committee said Monday that the number of Russians who live below the poverty line is up more than 40 percent from last year. It said that 11.5 percent of the workforce was unemployed at the start of October, an increase of 41,000 people in just one month. The Interfax news agency said the true impact of the economic crisis has yet to appear in jobless figures because Russian law requires a two-month notice of layoffs. In other grim news, the Russian currency tumbled again, dropping to 17.1 rubles to the dollar Monday, down from 15.5 rubles on Friday. The ruble was at about six to the dollar before it collapsed in August. There was at least one piece of good news Monday: Tax collections appear to be rising this month after falling in the aftermath of the crisis, tax chief Georgy Boos said. The government has been unable to meet its tax collection goals for years, and the economic turmoil has crippled Russia's banking system and made matters worse. The government collected $700 million in taxes in August, but only $543 million last month. Tax collection is picking up this month, Boos said, without giving any figures. The new government has said it wants to streamline the country's unwieldy tax system and lower some taxes to encourage more people to pay. But in its quest for more money, the government is showing an inclination to introduce new taxes and raise existing ones. Boos said Monday that the government plans to introduce a 10 percent sales tax on some categories of goods, which he didn't specify. The government has previously allowed regional authorities to independently impose sales taxes of up to 5 percent.

To: Alex who wrote (21938)	10/19/1998 8:59:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116768

Not sure what is euphoria is all about..Are we missing something? Buy..Buy..Buy? Monday, 19 October 1998 Q U E E N S T O W N , M D . (AP) ISRAEL SUSPENDED all negotiations with the Palestinians on issues other than security Monday after a bloody attack at a busy Israeli bus stop threatened already lagging Mideast peace talks. A senior Palestinian official, Yasser Abed Rabbo, dismissed the Israeli move as "cheap blackmail." President Clinton said the grenade attack was a "complicating factor" in the talks, which entered their fifth day Monday. But he returned as planned to the secluded conference site along the Wye River to try to coax Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to conclude a land-for-peace deal. Clinton then held a three-way session with the two leaders, P.J. Crowley, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said. It was the first time Netanyahu and Arafat had met face-to-face since last Friday and the first three-way session involving Clinton since then. The president and the CIA director, George Tenet, also had an unannounced meeting with Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai and Maj. Gen. Shlomo Yanay, a top Israeli security planner, Palestinian and Israeli sources told The Associated Press. Clinton began his fourth day of mediation with a 45-minute joint session with Israeli and Palestinian security experts. He then talked to Netanyahu for an hour and conferred with Arafat. White House spokesman Joe Lockhart declined to say how long the already extended summit would last. "It is virtually impossible to predict," he said. Netanyahu consulted Monday with senior Cabinet officials, then declared that "for progress to be achieved on other issues, we must first focus on security and terrorism. We are awaiting answers from the Palestinians today." The Israeli leader said that he would not stay on Maryland's Eastern Shore "for an unlimited period of time" and that the United States and the Palestinian delegation had been notified that Israel was postponing discussion of a projected opening of a Palestinian airport in Gaza. Netanyahu declared a land-for-peace accord was impossible unless Arafat's Palestinian Authority lived up to the security commitments it made in past agreements with Israel. The Americans and the Palestinians worked together, meanwhile, to try to ease the discord. Arafat telephoned Netanyahu to condemn the attack as regrettable and to pledge there would be an investigation. Arafat and Netanyahu said in a joint statement issued by the State Department that the terrorist attack "demonstrates the critical importance and urgency of fighting terror and pursuing peace." State Department spokesman James P. Rubin called the attack "tragic and cowardly." He said Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had met with Arafat and there were "informal contacts" between Israelis and Palestinians, as well. Palestinian sources said Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon had met with two senior Palestinian officials, Mahmoud Abbas and Ahmed Qurie. The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Palestinians continued to press for release of hundreds of prisoners held by Israel and for full control of about 14 percent of the 27 percent of the West Bank that Israel already has agreed to relinquish. The swath of land is now under joint security control. Current negotiations are based on Israel's willingness to surrender a further 13 percent of the territory, with 3 percent designated as a nature preserve. Security would be jointly controlled by Israel and the Palestinians. Rubin said attacks had caused temporary setbacks to peacemaking in the past, and "we are going to work a hard as we can today" on an agreement. Clinton deplored the attack before leaving Washington and acknowledged negotiators were having a tough time. "The issues are difficult," Clinton said. "The distrust is deep. The going has been tough. But the parties must consider the consequences of failure and also the benefits of progress." A senior Netanyahu adviser, David Bar-Illan, said that the attack in Beersheba, which injured more than three score Israelis, was the 10th in a series over seven weeks, and that the Palestinian Authority had done nothing about most of them. Rubin disagreed. He said the Palestinians had improved its security arrangements. "Clearly, if the Israelis do not show up for committee meetings, there will not be committee meetings," Rubin said. But, he added, "we are continuing to work as hard as we can today."