KIEV, Jan. 28 – Lawmakers on Thursday approved in the first reading a bill, sponsored by the opposition Regions Party, seeking to amend presidential election law by eliminating a quorum at local election commissions.

KIEV, Jan. 28 – Parliament, led by the opposition Regions Party, on Thursday dismissed Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, dealing a major blow to Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko just 10 days before the presidential vote.

KIEV, Jan. 27 – The Cabinet of Ministers has proposed a law under which businesses will not have to label foods as containing genetically modified organisms (GMO), if they do not contain protein and therefore have no transgenetic organisms.

KIEV, Jan. 27 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and Regions Party leader Viktor Yanukovych, who have qualified for Ukraine's presidential runoff, will participate in a video linkup with Davos as part of the Sixth Ukrainian Lunch "Presidential elections: Quo vadis, Ukraine?" on January 29.

KIEV, Jan. 28 – President Viktor Yushchenko has signed a law ratifying a grant agreement between the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Cabinet of Ministers and the State Nuclear Regulatory Committee of Ukraine.

Parliament ratified the law on January 20.

KIEV, Jan. 27 – The National Bank of Ukraine has made the Ukrainian cabinet responsible for the further development of the situation at Kiev-based Nadra Bank, according to an open letter of the NBU to Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, which is posted on the Web site of the central bank.

KIEV, Jan. 27 – “We were honest in this incident and the truth remains on our side," Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said of his country;’s gas dispute with Russia to the British newspaper the Financial Times in Brussels.

KIEV, Jan. 28 – The attempts to dismiss Volodymyr Stelmakh, the governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, cost the bank $450 million in unnecessary interventions to support the local currency, a senior official said Wednesday.

KIEV, Jan. 28 - Ukraine’s security service SBU on Wednesday warned the government against illegal confiscation of $4.5 billion worth of natural gas owned by gas trader RosUkrEnergo and stored the country’s underground gas tanks.

KIEV, Jan. 28 – Finance Minister Viktor Pynzenyk, who has apparently warned the government about a looming economic doomsday, is in a hospital with high blood pressure, a person familiar with the situation said Wednesday.