IMF loan to Albania
The IMF on August 26 announced approval of a $US29 million loan to Albania — its first since Albania became a member last October. The announcement said that the country's economy had suffered such collapse since 1990 that output was now at the level of the mid-1970s.
Madame Dinh
Madame Nguyen Thi Dinh, a vice-president of Vietnam, died in Ho Chi Minh City on August 26. Aged 72, she was the president of the Women's Union. Born in 1920, in the southern province of Ben Tre, Dinh joined the Vietnamese Communist Party in 1938 and was imprisoned by the French colonialists for three years in 1940. During the liberation struggle she played a leading role in the National Liberation Front, later becoming the deputy commander-in-chief of the People's Liberation Army.
Demobilisation resumes
The FMLN of El Salvador reaffirmed on August 27 its intention to demobilise all its forces over the next two months, provided that the government keeps its part of the January peace accords. Guerrillas stopped turning in their weapons in July when the government failed to implement a program for their return to civilian life.