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KIEV, Ukraine — After last week's signing of a five-year natural gas agreement with Russia, President Viktor Yushchenko was basking in self-congratulation. "I would call it a brilliant achievement," he told Ukraine's NTN television. But former ally Yulia Tymoshenko thought otherwise. "Only a person with a huge New Year's hangover can call this a success," declared Tymoshenko, who was a partner in the 2004 Orange Revolution that brought Yushchenko to power and was his prime minister until last fall. "It's clear that the government has systematically and consciously betrayed the national interests of Ukraine." Just a little more than a...

ESSEN, GERMANY - Germany's two main gas importing companies, E.on Ruhrgas and Wingas, confirmed Tuesday they were again receiving the full contractual amounts of gas by pipeline, two days after Russia had ceased pumping gas in a dispute with Ukraine. One of the companies said the evidence at the receiving end showed that Ukraine had again been siphoning off gas intended for the West. Gazprom had earlier assured customers west of Ukraine that it would compensate them for supplies that went missing from pipes that lead across Ukrainian territory, and accused Ukraine of theft. "The pressure in the pipelines has...

KIEV, Ukraine, Jan. 3 - Ukraine conceded today that it had withdrawn natural gas from its pipeline system that Russia said was intended for export to Europe, but it asserted that it had a contractual right to the fuel under an agreement with the Central Asian nation of Turkmenistan. Genadiy Minchenko/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images A view of the Bogorechanke gas-holding facility near Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine on Monday before Russia resumed most gas supplies. Arterial Pipelines Both Russia and Turkmenistan export natural gas to Ukraine, but the flow of fuel from Central Asia passes through Russian pipelines before it...

ANALYSIS: By Peter Lavelle, Analyst for RIA Novosti United Press International Ukraine's March 2006 parliamentary election campaign is underway with the orange camp divided and the political party leading in the polls, headed by ex-prime minister and former presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych, positioned to become the country's political powerbroker. Polls report that Yanukovych's Party of Regions enjoys the support of around 25 percent of the electorate, which would translate into 165 mandates in the 450-seat Verkhovna Rada (federal parliament). The pro-presidential Our Ukraine People's Union (NSNU) is in the process of creating an election coalition called the Our Ukraine Yushchenko...

30 December 2005 -- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko today suggested he might call for a referendum on constitutional changes that will reduce his powers starting next year. The changes were agreed at the height of the "Orange Revolution" as part of a deal to win broad agreement on re-staging a rigged presidential election. Yushchenko won the rerun and took office in January. But during a live television interview today, Yushchenko said the changes now threaten political stability and efficiency. He said the issue of a referendum will be on his agenda, but did not say when. Under the changes due...

Sergiy Kostiuk, for UP Response to President Yushchenko’s article, published in Financial Times, December 22, 2005 Over a half of Ukraine’s population thinks that the country moves in a wrong direction Last year, when Christmas and New Year’s celebration was in full swing in Europe, millions of Ukrainians rebelled against marred regime of Kuchma-Yanukovych. Those events became known as Orange Revolution. Peaceful protest against fraudulent elections ended on December 26th. People of Ukraine chose European democratic values and elected Yushchenko the third President of independent Ukraine. As the year nears its end, Europe celebrates again, but the Ukrainians call the...

On Wednesday December 14 an event occurred which does not leave much space for doubts that the “gas blackmail” exercised by Russia has got nothing to do with the gas itself. The “Gasprom” stand with regard to the price of gas had undergone a miraculous change. The price that the Russian monopolist is demanding for its product has gone up from $160 per 1000 cubic meters to $230. This means that a fair price is absolutely out of the question if to consider the Russian motivation in this matter. Simply because prices for such a commodity never undergo rapid changes,...

KIEV, December 19 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine's foreign debt increased by $2.9 billion during the third quarter of 2005, totaling $36.86 billion on October 1, the National Bank of Ukraine said in a statement Monday.

The real gross domestic product of Ukraine (GDP) made up 2.2% during January-November of 2005, compared with the corresponding period of the last year; in November the GDP reduced by 2.7%. UNIAN was informed on that at the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine. According to the information of the Committee, the nominal GDP, by a preliminary estimate, made 363 billion 163 million hryvnias during 11 months of 2005, and 35 billion 513 million hryvnias in November.

KIEV (AFP) - Ukraine will consider storing nuclear waste from abroad at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, the site of the world's worst civilian nuclear disaster, President Viktor Yushchenko said. ADVERTISEMENT "Politically, we have to study this question," Yushchenko was quoted as saying after visiting the plant in the north of the country. "Undoubtedly, there can be economic feasibility... so we have to think hard before making a political decision," Interfax quoted him as saying. Chernobyl's number-four reactor, in what was then the Soviet Union and is now Ukraine, exploded on April 26, 1986, sending a radioactive cloud across Europe. Following...

November frozen orange juice futures were trading up 4.60 cents to $1.135 a pound early Wednesday, and touched a contract high of $1.145 a pound, on concerns that Hurricane Wilma may damage orange crops in the state of Florida. Weather forecasters upgraded the storm to Category 5 early today and said it may be the strongest storm ever recorded in the Atlantic basin. Wilma is tracking to the west-northwest but forecasters expect it to dogleg to the northeast and bear down on Florida at the weekend.

Socialists demanded new oranges! Take them away! We demand new oranges! Socialist leaders demanded new fruit on national convention when they discovered the Jaffa-label. OLE MATHISMOEN When the leader of the norwegian Sosialistisk Venstreparti (SV), which translates into ”Socialistic Leftist Party”, Kristin Halvorsen held a national rally i Kristiansand a few weeks ago, pieces of fruit and water was served as an alternative to chocolate and coffee during the breaks. Party-delegates, guests and members of the press helped themselves greedily. But in SV one is choosy of what one stuffs in ones mouth… When an observant delegate discovered a label...

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In a show of solidarity with Florida's citrus growers, an orange Kerry, holds up a fist and says, "Power to the Pulp." MIAMI -- Seeking support in a hurricane-weary state where presidential politics has taken a back seat to Mother Nature, Sen. John Kerry this week turned his skin orange in a show of solidarity to Florida's struggling citrus growers who are feeling a financial "squeeze" as a result of recent hurricanes, campaign officials said Tuesday. Kerry's complexion made the "immitation-is-the-sincerest-form-of-flattery" transition as many undecided voters in Florida begin to focus on the race, even as residents recover from a...

Senator John Kerry bowled with oranges on his campaign airplane on Thursday shortly after takeoff from the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. Girlfriend leans out from bathroom to beam a smile. Meanwhile, media and campaign aides fastened their seatbelts as Kerry freaked out.

SAO PAULO, Brazil -- The United States wants to proceed rapidly with trade negotiations that could open the door for increased imports of Brazilian agricultural products such as orange juice and sugar, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said Wednesday."We are open for negotiations. Everything is on the table. So we're anxious to get those discussions under way," Snow said after visiting an Avon Products Inc. plant in Sao Paulo, the country's financial and industrial center.Snow held two hours of talks with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the country's first elected leftist leader. He also met with Brazilian business leaders....

<p>RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, April 24 (UPI) -- U.S. officials say "free trade," while their Brazilian counterparts say "fat chance."</p> <p>U.S. Treasury John Snow is touring South America this week and putting out the message that the United States is ready to "put everything" on the Free Trade Area of the Americas negotiating table.</p>

A Broward County judge struck down Florida’s canker-eradication law as unconstitutional on Friday, providing another last-minute legal rescue to South Florida’s remaining citrus trees. In blistering language that invoked the revolt by American colonists against the British, Circuit Judge J. Leonard Fleet said the canker-eradication law “returned this state to a period in time when the rights of an individual were at the mercy and whim of royalty.” Citrus tree owners burst into applause as Fleet finished reading the ruling in a packed courtroom in downtown Fort Lauderdale. But officials at the Department of Agriculture predicted that the disease would...