KIEV, Dec. 3 - Ukraine may permanently close its largest coal mine, Zasiadko, after the third methane explosion over the past two weeks killed five coal miners late Sunday, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych said Monday.

KIEV, Dec. 3 - President Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine-People's Self-defense on Monday officially approved the nomination of Arseniy Yatseniuk, a pragmatic pro-Western foreign minister, as speaker of Parliament.

LVIV, Dec. 3 - The executive committee of the Lviv City council at a meeting has decided to announce a tender to select an investor to build a stadium to host the European Football Championship in 2012.

DONETSK, Dec. 4 - A technical council decided on Monday that the problematic section in the Zasyadko coalmine in Donetsk, in which three explosions have occurred over the past two weeks, will be flooded, the State Mining Rescue Service reported.

KIEV, Dec. 4 - BYT MPs Yulia Tymoshenko, Oleksandr Turchynov, and Andriy Portnov have submitted a bill to Parliament abolishing conscription and proposing military service on a contract basis.

KIEV, Dec. 4 – Arseniy Yatseniuk, 33, the pragmatic foreign minister and the choice of President Viktor Yushchenko, on Tuesday was elected speaker of Parliament, cementing the creation of a pro-Western coalition in Ukraine.

KIEV, Dec. 4 ??“ President Viktor Yushchenko will have to clear all officials to be appointed to senior posts at foreign, internal affairs and defense ministries, according to a presidential decree signed Monday.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 ??“ Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych sought to assure an American audience Monday that his government is committed to democracy and European integration, but differs with President Viktor Yushchenko on when this can be achieved.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 ??“ Ukraine??™s economy will be expanding robustly at the pace of between 6% and 7% annually during the next five years, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych told an American audience in Washington Monday.

KIEV, Dec. 5 ??“ Naftogaz Ukrayiny, the national oil and gas company, said Tuesday it paid off the remaining $306 million debt to RosUkrEnergo, a gas trader controlled by Gazprom, owed for natural gas supplies.