CHERVONOARMIYSK, Aug. 23 – Parliament will pass pension reform in September, Speaker Volodymyr Lytvy said.

SIMFEROPOL, Aug. 22 – The trial of former Crimean Parliament Chairman Anatoliy Hrytsenko will take place in Zaporizhia region to ensure there is a fair judicial process.

KIEV, Aug. 24 – About three thousand protesters, led by former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s allies, marched in downtown Kiev Wednesday, but were stopped by massive police forces, marking a short-lived Independence Day confrontation.

KIEV, Aug. 19 – President Viktor Yanukovych will make official visits to France and Poland this fall, Oleh Voloshyn, director of Information Policy of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, said at a briefing in Kiev on Thursday.

KIEV, Aug. 24 – President Viktor Yanukovych admitted on Tuesday that some journalists may have been facing “obstacles” and restrictions while writing their stories, but said his administration had nothing to do with it.

KIEV, Aug. 24 – President Viktor Yanukovych on Tuesday called for amending the constitution to strengthen his powers in order to “stabilize” Ukraine’s political system and promote economic reforms.

KIEV, Aug. 20 – The Foreign Ministry has advised Ukrainian citizens to refrain from visiting Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as traveling to Georgia via the Adler and Nizhny Zaramag checkpoints on the Georgia-Russian border as Georgia adopted the law on occupied territories, which bans entry to these territories for citizens of foreign countries and persons without citizenship.

KIEV, Aug. 21 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko remains the most influential person in Ukraine according to the Korrespondent magazine.

The owner of the SCM group of companies, Regions Party MP Rinat Akhmetov is in second place, Regions Party leader Viktor Yanukovych is third, the major stockholder of the EastOne international investment advisory group, Viktor Pinchuk, appears at No. 4, and President Viktor Yushchenko was ranked at No. 5.

MAKIYIVKA, Aug. 24 – Eight miners were killed and 11 injured in an explosion in a coal mine in eastern Ukraine, the latest tragedy to hit the country's troubled mining industry, AFP reported Monday.

The suspected methane gas blast took place Sunday at a mine in Makiyivka, a city in Ukraine's coal-rich Donetsk region.

KIEV, Aug. 24 – President Viktor Yushchenko on Monday vowed to ensure the next presidential election is free from any manipulation, suggesting that he will take action to derail controversial legislation that was approved on Friday.