WORLD IN BRIEF : ROMANIA : Crippling 2-Week Rail Strike Ends

A crippling two-week railway strike ended after the government and union leaders negotiated a settlement in Bucharest. Strike demands centered on a pay claim dating back to 1986, when the late dictator Nicolae Ceausescu imposed production penalties and docked money from railway workers’ wages. Final details on repaying docked wages to strikers still had to be worked out. Negotiators said President Ion Iliescu might mediate. The government said the strike brought the economy to the verge of collapse, disrupted trade with the Soviet Union and food distribution and starved industry of raw materials.