71.   The INS screens applications for foreign adoptions, while the embassies issue visas for orphans to travel to the United States.

72.   The new law has been hailed by both Russian and foreign adoption officials because it will allow foreigners to adopt healthy children who are not wanted by Russian couples.

73.   The measure was a compromise worked out by both houses of parliament after Yeltsin in December vetoed stricter legislation banning all intermediaries from the foreign adoption process.

74.   The New York-based group has said conditions at the orphanage improved in recent years when it began supplying children for foreign adoption.

75.   The new law also says all children in Russia will be eligible for foreign adoption if no Russian family can be found for them.

76.   The new law prohibits commercial adoption agencies, allowing only non-profit intermediaries, and liberalizes the categories of children eligible for foreign adoption.

77.   The rights group acknowledges that improvements have been made at the institition in recent years as it has become a primary source of babies for foreign adoptions.

78.   The Russian government has ended a ban on foreign adoptions that had left thousands of children stuck in orphanages for months, lawmakers said Wednesday.

79.   The participants also urged the government to ask France to provide financial assistance to childcare centers where children for foreign adoptions are cared for, he said.

80.   The revisions, if approved into law, appear to mark a change from policies that encouraged foreign adoptions.