CNN:
IMF approves $4.5 billion loan package for Russia

The International Monetary Fund approved a $4.5 billion financial package for Russia Wednesday aimed at helping to keep the country afloat through December parliamentary elections and presidential voting scheduled for June 2000.

A total of $640 million would be made available immediately, a statement from the IMF said. It added that six other installments of the same amount will be paid out over the next 17 months.

Signaling the IMF intends to closely monitor Russia's economy, the statement said the payment of subsequent installments "will depend on completion of quarterly reviews and meeting of performance criteria and structural benchmarks."

President Boris Yeltsin's special envoy to international financial institutions, Mikhail Zadornov, worked out the final details with the IMF's deputy managing director, Stanley Fischer, and the fund's 24 executive directors during a daylong meeting.

"In view of Russia's extremely difficult economic and financial situation, the directors underscored the need for full and timely implementation of the envisaged reform measures," the IMF's statement said.

The reform measures include a package of laws to increase government revenue, combat corruption and reform the banking system. Russia's lower house of parliament, the Duma, already has approved some of these measures.

Disapproval of asset channeling to subsidiary

The IMF statement said the directors expressed "strong disapproval" of Russia's central bank's channeling of some of its assets to an offshore subsidiary it set up to manage some of its reserves in 1996.

It said this practice had given a "misleading impression of the true state of reserves," and it urged Russian authorities to "take immediate steps to prevent a recurrence of these problems."

However, the statement said the directors took note of an independent audit that showed no impropriety in the central bank's use of a $4.8 billion IMF loan to Russia in July 1998, just before Russia defaulted on its foreign loans and devalued the ruble, plunging the country into financial crisis.

The long-awaited deal would allow Russia to stave off a complete international default and to gain access to new loans from the World Bank and Japan. For its part, the IMF gets to keep some leverage over the policies of its largest debtor. Russia owes the IMF $18 billion.

The move to resume lending comes nearly a year after Russia defaulted on its debts and devalued its currency last Aug. 17.

The IMF froze a loan package worth $22.6 billion after the financial collapse but reached a preliminary accord on new financing in April.

Since then, there have been visits by IMF teams to Moscow, briefings for board members and an independent audit of Russia's finances, so the result of Wednesday's deliberations were seen by many at the IMF as a foregone conclusion.

Criticism of lending

Russian Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin, visiting Washington, on Tuesday emphasized his commitment to reforming the economy. He said Russia would "fully implement our obligations."

But there was been some criticism of new IMF lending to Moscow in Congress and elsewhere. House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, one of the IMF's most vocal critics, said last week the United States should withhold support for further IMF lending until Russia has accounted for use of past aid. The United States is the IMF's largest contributor.

The new loan was being made contingent on Russian parliamentary approval of a package of laws intended to increase government revenue, combat corruption and restructure the commercial banking system.

The IMF decision is expected to unlock $3 billion in World Bank and Japanese loans and consideration of an accord to restructure debts owed to rich creditor governments. They meet in Paris on Thursday to discuss rescheduling of up to $10 billion of Russia's debt.

The IMF approval also leads to negotiations with the so-called London Club of commercial creditors August 3 on restructuring about $30 billion of Soviet-era debt.

The United States, Germany and other wealthy nations have made future bilateral support contingent on Russia first securing an agreement with the IMF.

No funds will actually be sent to Moscow. Instead the first installment of $630 million will be transferred from one of the IMF's accounts to another next month, allowing Russia to avoid default on more than $5 billion it owes the lending agency this year and next.

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9907/28/imf.russia.01.ap/

THE TIMES:
Pentagon retires Clark

WESLEY CLARK, the American General who led Nato forces to victory in Kosovo but infuriated the Pentagon and his fellow commanders, has been ordered to leave his post four months early.

General Clark was expected to serve out a three-year term as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, ending next summer, but he will now finish in April.

The White House last night denied that the decision was a reflection on General Clark. "No one is being pushed out. No one is being forced out," Joe Lockhart, the White House spokesman, said.

"The President has the highest regard for General Clark. He did incredible and invaluable work in the Kosovo conflict and the realignment of commanders-in-chief in no way reflects badly on his performance."

Pentagon officials described the move as a "normal rotation", but it comes after months of escalating tension between General Clark and his political and military bosses in Washington.

His abrasive and aggressive approach led to friction with other Nato military leaders, including Britain's Lieutenant-General Sir Michael Jackson, the commander of Kfor in Kosovo, who became increasingly frustrated by constant interference from his American superior. General Clark, 54, yesterday rejected suggestions that the move was due to his handling of the air war. Observing military exercises in would-be Nato member Lithuania, he said: "This is a more or less routine personnel action. When a soldier's tour of duty is over, it's over."

From the earliest weeks of the Yugoslav conflict, General Clark complained that he was being hampered by diplomatic and political foot-dragging, and he lobbied vigorously for greater resources, swifter decisions and tougher action. In defiance of the formal US position, he argued from the beginning of the campaign that planning for a ground invasion was essential.

The most obvious evidence of a split was the 24 Apache attack helicopters, which were kept out of battle by the Pentagon despite repeated requests for deployment by General Clark.

His hawkish stance also led to clashes with General Jackson, straining Anglo-American ties and at one point even risking a confrontation with Russia. One of the most dangerous moments of the conflict came when General Clark, whose four stars outrank General Jackson's three, gave the order to seize Pristina airport after a small convoy of Russian soldiers took up residence before a single Nato soldier had entered Kosovo.

Washington must have given approval for the mission but Tony Blair refused the support of British troops. For a few tense hours, General Clark's high-risk strategy raised the spectre of a battle with Russian troops.

Relations between Generals Clark and Jackson reached such a low that the two men had a blazing row in Pristina over the way the operation should be handled, according to The New York Times.

Officials said General Clark would probably retire to civilian life, although there was speculation that he might be offered an ambassadorship.He will be replaced by Air Force General Joseph Ralston, the vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

William Cohen, the US Defence Secretary, is known to think very highly of General Ralston, who had been planning to retire in February. The decision to make him Supreme Commander was portrayed as a way "to keep Joe Ralston in uniform" rather than a move to banish or punish General Clark. Mr Cohen yesterday insisted that his relationship with General Clark was "good and cordial".

General Clark issued a statement saying: "I'm not going to speculate on what opportunities might be available in public life or private life. There is a long time yet to do this job, and I've got to keep my attention on it."

http://www.sunday-times.co.uk:80/news/pages/Times/frontpage.html

THE TIMES:
'World English' makes its debut

THE Queen's English is an outmoded and backward-looking concept, according to a leading publishing house that is about to bring out a new dictionary of "world English".

"Commesse", "zap" and "wikiwiki" may not have originated in Britain, but English can no longer be said to be the British language as originally defined by James Murray in the first Oxford English Dictionary, according to Bloomsbury Publishing.

It is now the language of the world, said its chief executive, Nigel Newton. "Commesse", to English speakers in the Caribbean, means scandal, while "zap" in Malaysia refers to photocopying and "wikiwiki" in Hawaii is understood as quickly. Their words are just as valid as anything homegrown in Britain, says Bloomsbury.

The Encarta World English Dictionary sets out to reflect the contemporary usage of English, defining words according to a global cultural perspective rather than the cultural perspective of any one nation, said Kathy Rooney, its editor-in-chief.

It has been completed after three years by an international team of more than 320 lexicographers, editors and consultants and cost more than £5 million. It features more than 400,000 references and more than 3½ million words of text. The seemingly infinite varieties of English include American, Irish, Welsh, South African, Australian and New Zealand.

Mr Newton observed that more than 750 million people speak English as a first or second language worldwide, making it the first global language since Latin. "English is now a global language that belongs to all those who speak it. We estimate that by the year 2050, over 50 per cent of the world's population - an estimated 4.2 billion people of the world's estimated total population of 7.96 billion - will have competence in English. . .We felt there was a need for a dictionary that reflected this fact and that celebrated the diversity and vigour of the English language," he said.

He added: "We shouldn't try and stop the development of English with claims that there is only one 'true' version. The reality is that the Queen's English is an outmoded and backward-looking concept. The very strength of English is its adaptability."

http://www.sunday-times.co.uk:80/news/pages/Times/frontpage.html