KIEV, March 20 - Ukraine??™s Constitutional Court is halfway through in deliberations on whether to cancel privatization of Illich Steel, the country??™s No. 2 steelmaker, in a decision that would have a major impact on the sector.

KIEV, March 20 ??“ Anatoliy Kinakh, a lawmaker and a member of opposition group Our Ukraine, may soon get a senior post at the government, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych said Tuesday.

KIEV, March 20 ??“ President Viktor Yushchenko nominated Arseniy Yatseniuk, the first deputy chief of staff at the presidential office, as foreign minister after Parliament, led by pro-Russian coalition, had rejected Volodymyr Ohryzko.

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.