KIEV, March 20 ??“ The home of Yuriy Lutsenko, a Ukrainian opposition leader and former internal affairs minister, was searched on Tuesday as prosecutors had been apparently looking for evidence to support earlier corruption allegations.

KIEV, March 20 ??“ The level of registered unemployment in Ukraine grew to 2.9% of the country??™s workforce by the end of February, while in January the rate was 2.8%, the State Statistics Committee reported.

KIEV, March 20 ??“ The forecast wholesale electricity market price for April 2007 will grow by 1.6% compared to the March price, to UAH 229.68 per MWh.

KIEV, March 20 ??“ The positive changes in the balance of payments of Ukraine since the start of the year allow the government to expect exchange rate stability and growth in currency reserves of the central bank, First Deputy Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said.

MOSCOW, March 20 - Russia believes that economic integration in the CIS could be boosted within the Euro-Asian Economic Union, or EurAsEC, a Russia-led economic bloc, with a single economic zone created afterwards.

KIEV, March 20 ??“ Russia may have played a role in suspending direct natural gas supplies from Turkmenistan to Ukraine since the beginning of the year, according to comments by Turkmen and Ukrainian officials Monday.

MINSK, March 20 ??“ Thousands of protesters joined a rally in Belarus on Monday to condemn an alleged election fraud, while the country??™s central election commission declared incumbent President Alexander Lukashenka the winner by landslide.

KRYVY RIH, March 20 ??“ Mittal Steel, the world??™s largest steel producer, has been fulfilling its investment commitment in Ukraine undertaken after purchasing a local steel giant, a senior official said after an inspection.

KIEV, March 20 ??“ The International Financing Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, on March 21 opens a project to draw up a strategic plan for the pulp and paper sector and market development in Ukraine until 2020.

KIEV, March 17 - A group of Ukrainian lawmakers submitted a bill aimed at increasing 10-fold royalties on domestic crude oil and natural gas extraction, Oleh Zarubinskiy, a member of People's Party, said Thursday.