11.   In part because of widespread abuses, the Salvadoran government last year also enacted stricter laws limiting foreign adoptions.

12.   It was with the stated goal of protecting orphans that the Russian government last year began working on a new law that would tighten the rules for foreign adoption.

13.   Many couples choose foreign adoptions because adopting a healthy American child can take up to five years.

14.   Mrs. Shevardnadze is leading a crusade to end foreign adoptions altogether.

15.   Mrs. Shevardnadze is convinced that the foreign adoption process is riddled with corruption, and Western diplomats in Georgia say the president privately shares her views.

16.   Several children who were approved for foreign adoption before the moratorium died of pneumonia in a Tbilisi orphanage during the winter.

17.   Sixteen children whose foreign adoption papers had been in the pipeline before the December moratorium were offered to Georgian government agencies for local adoption this month.

18.   The American angle on this is that thousands of abandoned baby girls have become available for foreign adoption.

19.   The American Embassy in Moscow had warned that a de facto moratorium on foreign adoptions would begin in December.

20.   The case has touched off a debate among psychologists and adoption officials about a disorder that is increasingly being diagnosed as the number of foreign adoptions rise.