European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 26, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday april 26, 1991 the stars and strikes b Page 7 Moscow apr in a bold political stroke. President Mikhail Gorbachev has promised new elections in an agreement with his chief reformist rival. And used that Deal to fend off a Challenge from hard line communists. Gorbachev promised elections for the presidency and the National parliament in the Accord with russian Leader Boris n. Yeltsin and the Heads of eight other republics Kremlin spokesman Karen Karagezian said thursday the soviet Leader unveiled the agreement reached at Gorbachev a country Home in southwestern Moscow just hours before wednesdays Start of a two Day communist party Centra committee meeting in which hard liners sought his ouster As party Leader. The agreement Calls for an end to strikes the rapid signing of a Gorbachev advocated treaty on preserving the Union a new Constitution within six months and then new elections. It is signed Only by the nine republics that want to remain in the soviet onion. It was not immediately Clear whether the agreement specified that the office of president would be filled in a general election. Gorbachev has never faced the voters directly arid under  Constitution would not have to do so until1995. Whether striking workers Wilt be swayed to return to work by Gorbachev a tactics is unclear. An estimated 300,000 Coal miners Are continuing a walkout that began March 1, among their demands Are tying wages to inflation Gorbachev a resignation and More autonomy for the republics. In Leningrad 10,000 work is went on strike thursday. The workers of Metros Troi the subway construction company Are demanding higher pay Gorbachev a resignation and dissolution of parliament said strike committee Leader Vladimir Ignatenko. Thousands of other striking workers in the byelorussian capital of Minsk gathered on the main Square for a third Day. The Independent inter fax news Agency said workers blocked a railway Junction at the City of Orsha Between Minsk and Moscow cutting off a main route linking the soviet capital to the West. Gorbachev a agreement with nine republics appears to place a heavy penalty on the six Independence minded re pub lies which were not invited to tuesday s meeting. 1. It says the six will not enjoy a most favored nation status a defined elsewhere to mean they will lose soviet subsidies and be forced to pay world prices in Trade with the rest of the soviet Union. Gorbachev said the agreement would put his reforms Back on track. Last w Eek in Tokyo he said he was giving up on the six Independence minded republics and would pursue the new. Union treaty with the other nine which make up 90 percent of the country. With deft mane vering this week Gorbachev displayed the political skills that brought him from a minor Post in the provinces to the top of the party and have allowed him to survive six years of turbulent Reform. Gorbachev has been under attack from reformers who believe he has betrayed his original democratic vision and com world Monist hard liners seeking to retain Central control Over the Economy and gov-., Crement. A already not just in words but in deeds attempts Are being made to push the country off the path of Reform threatening to destroy our state or return it to the past to a slightly dressed up totalitarian regime Quot. Gorbachev said in a forceful speech at the Central committee session according to the official Tass news Agency. Alt Hoigh he acknowledged mistakes arid said the party had lost the Confidence of Many Ordinary people Gorbachev said that if his government fell Quot an explosive Power vacuum and dictatorship would  pointed to the signing of the agreement with the leaders of the nine republics As a the Start of a turning Point Tor the nation. A in the agreement Gorbachev made several concessions offering to cancel an unpopular new 5 percent sales tax on everyday goods and to consider indexing wages to  to the end of Veteran soldiers Tom. Jones left and Henry me Lachlan help Norm Glover make it to the end of the Anzac Day March in Sydney Australia on thursday. The vet Erans were among thousands who took part in the annual March which is held nationally to remember fallen comrades in war.8 blasts hit 2 turkish cities. Ankara Turkey apr eight bombs rocked the turkish capital and a Southern Industrial City thursday injuring one person and damaging property belonging to private turkish companies police said. Six bombs went off in Ankara about 7 . At the same time two bombs exploded in Adana 300 Miles South of the capital. One of the Adana bombs was placed in the air conditioning unit of a Bank and slightly injured a passer by. The other was at a Tea warehouse. The leftist underground group Dev sol claimed responsibility for the blasts in Adana saying they were in protest of an official ban on labor Day celebrations May 1. No one claimed the Ankara bombs. In the capital a powerful blast destroyed the lobby of a building housing the offices of the Cukur ova electrical co two other blasts ripped through the offices of the Alarka and Koprak companies in downtown Ankara causing serious damage. Smaller bombs slightly damaged the Headquarters of the sofa construction company and of the Koc holding co As Well As a shopping mall. It was not immediately Clear if there were any people in any of the offices or the mall at the time. On wednesday Dev sol claimed responsibility for explosions at the Istanbul offices of Koc holding turkeys largest Industrial group and of the Koprak ceramics company. It said this was in protest of the ban on May 1 celebrations. Ankara police said two youths ran away from the scene of one of the blasts dropping briefcases con taming left Wing literature. It was not Clear whether they were involved in the explosion. The marxist Dev sol organization is believed to have a few thousand sympathizers. It says it Aims to overthrow turkeys government and establish a communist state. A. The group whose name Means revolutionary left has claimed responsibility for More than two dozen blasts and the murder of two . Citizens in Turkey Over the past four months. It also wounded an air Force officer. In Many attacks the group said it was protesting the role played by the United states and its allies in the persian Gulf War against Iraq. May Day celebrations were banned after 37 people were shot or trampled to death in a riot May 1, 1978/in Istanbul. Police and demonstrators blamed each other for the  hoping new tax will curb land prices from wire reports Tokyo parliament on wednesday approved Japan a first annual land tax in an Effort to curb skyrocketing real estate prices. Beginning Jan 1, the government will tax Large commercial landowners 0.3 percent of the assessed value of their real estate. The Law which should generate from $2.17 to $2.9 billion in the first year also is aimed at making  expensive to speculate on future prices. The soaring Cost of land has upset potential Home buyers in Japan where More than 120 million people live in an area smaller than the state of California. The Issue has also been reflected in Trade. . And european officials complain that High rents make doing business in Japan prohibitively expensive for foreign companies unification clause upheld Karlsruhe Germany a Germany s highest court on wednesday upheld a clause in the unification treaty that could Cost As Many As 600,000 Eastern German civil servants their jobs. Under the terms of the unification treaty about a third of the 1.7 million former East German civil servants Are to lose their jobs by the end of june. More than 300 employees filed suit claiming that according to the. Jaws of what was once. East Germany their jobs were guaranteed. They feel that guarantee should still apply. But the Karlsruhe based court in its ruling noted that most of the 600,000 former East German government employees would Haye lost their jobs anyway. East Germany was headed for economic ruin even before unification the court said in a statement Given the Media. The court ruled that the unified Federal government must provide retraining for those civil servants lacing unemployment Bhutto minister convicted Islamabad,.Pakistan a a former minister was found guilty of corruption and banned from politics for seven years wednesday in the first conviction by a special tribunal probing the government of ousted prime minister Binazir Bhutto. The special one judge court also ordered Iftikhar Gilani to pay a $100, my Fine or face 18 months in jail. He was charged with misappropriating $150,000 in government funds according to the state run news Agency associated press of.Pakistan Gilani who could not be reached for comment can Appeal the conviction to the supreme court. He was tried in the Northern City of Peshawar the special tribunals were established to investigate the 20-month government of Bhutto