KIEV, Dec. 23 - A group of women from a Ukrainian topless-protest group on Wednesday recounted their ordeal in neighboring Belarus, where they claimed they were kidnapped, beaten and abused by local security officials.

KIEV, Dec. 23 — A Ukrainian court on Friday kept former Premier Yulia Tymoshenko in jail on charges of abuse of office, defying renewed Western pressure to release the country’s top opposition leader.

KIEV, Dec. 25 – The presidential secretariat doubts that the cabinet has the right to hire foreign financial consultants and pay them "premium-class" remuneration, said Roman Bezsmertny, deputy head of the presidential secretariat.

KIEV, Dec. 25 – The Cabinet of Ministers has commissioned the Ministry of Industrial Policy to increase the statutory capital levels of the Kharkiv and Kiev aircraft factories by issuing cheap state loans from budget funds.

KIEV, Dec. 25 – Rescuers were searching Thursday for dozens of people trapped under the rubble of an apartment building destroyed in a nighttime explosion that killed at least 22 people in southern Ukraine.

KIEV, Dec. 25 – Parliament on Thursday rejected Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s 2009 budget, a development that greatly increases pressure on the government as the Dec. 31 deadline looms.

KIEV, Dec. 23 – President Viktor Yushchenko forecasts that Ukraine's GDP will grow 1%- 1.8% in 2008.

Inflation in 2008 will amount to 22%-23%, Yushchenko said at a meeting with regional governors and local authorities in Kiev on Tuesday.

KIEV, Dec. 25 – The real GDP fall in 2009 may be 9.9% and inflation could be no less than 19%, according to specialists from Phoenix Capital Investment Company.

"We expect that the downturn peak will be seen in Q1 2009, when the slump in the industry will spread on the service sector.

KIEV, Dec. 24 - Ukraine has reached a consensus with Russia regarding the payment for natural gas imported from Russia and pumped into Ukrainian underground gas storage facilities, President Viktor Yuschenko said.

KIEV, Dec. 25 ??“ Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, the most popular politician in Ukraine, slightly improved his rating over the past month, followed by opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko and President Viktor Yushchenko, opinion polls showed Monday.