Rescue workers were combing through piles of concrete and glass today in an ongoing search for survivors from an apartment building explosion in southern Ukraine, but authorities said hope was waning as the death toll climbed to 27.

An explosion tore through a block of flats in southern Ukraine, killing at least 17 people and leaving dozens more trapped under the rubble, emergency officials said today.

Pirates have seized a ship carrying 33 Russian tanks and ammunition off Somalia.

The speaker of the Ukrainian parliament has announced the collapse of the pro-Western governing coalition.

Severe storms and floods in Ukraine have killed 13 people, including five children, and left at least two missing.

After a four-year investigation Ukraine admitted today it does not have a single suspect for the attempted murder of President Viktor Yushchenko.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has survived a no-confidence vote in parliament.

NATO decided yesterday not to put Georgia and Ukraine on track to join the alliance after vehement Russian opposition, but the alliance pledged that the strategically important Black Sea nations will become members one day.

YESTERDAY’S eleventh-hour deal between Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin might well be a postcard from thefuture, warning us about what might await a small, relatively powerless economy in the world’s energy markets.

Flags flew at half-staff nationwide today as grieving relatives prepared to bury victims of Ukraine’s worst mining disaster in years.

Thirty-five miners remained trapped today after a methane blast ripped through a coal mine in eastern Ukraine, killing at least 65.

Ukraine’s energy minister is to hold urgent talks with Russia today after being threatened with a cut in gas supplies.

Ukraine's Orange Revolution allies made a strong showing in parliamentary elections and looked poised to win a majority that could steer the country more firmly on to a pro-Western course, an exit poll showed.

AN INDEPENDENT exit poll indicated Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych’s party was leading in yesterday’s parliamentary elections by a slim margin — ahead of the bloc led by Yulia Tymoshenko.

Ukrainians began voting today in an early parliamentary election meant to bring an end to a months-long political stand off between the nation’s two feuding leaders.

A train derailment that ignited tankers loaded with yellow phosphorous has prompted health authorities in Ukraine to check 16,000 people for symptoms of chemical poisoning.

UKRAINIAN President Viktor Yushchenko yesterday said he was taking command of Interior Ministry troops, but a ministry spokesman rejected the order in a move of defiance that escalated the country’s political turmoil.

MPs supporting Ukraine's Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych asked the Constitutional Court today to consider the legality of the president's latest decree dissolving parliament and calling early elections, the court said.

The uninhabited and contaminated region around the shuttered Chernobyl nuclear power plant must be put to use again, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said today on the eve of the 21st anniversary of the world’s worst-ever nuclear accident.

Thousands of opponents of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych blocked the entrances to Ukraine’s Constitutional Court this morning, delaying a second day of hearings into the legality of the president’s decree to dissolve parliament.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych has refused to accept a presidential order to hold early parliamentary elections.

President Viktor Yushchenko has dissolved Ukraine’s parliament and called early elections.

Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko dissolved Ukraine’s parliament today and called early elections.

Politicians who supported President Viktor Yushchenko during the Orange Revolution appealed to Ukrainians to return to Kiev’s Independence Square today for a rally.

Ukrainian lawmakers today fired the foreign minister and interior minister, setting the stage for a legal battle between the president and the premier.

Ukraine’s pro-Russian parliamentary majority warned President Viktor Yushchenko today against dissolving parliament and calling new elections, threatening that the move could trigger a battle for power in this ex-Soviet republic.

UKRAINE’S main opposition party joined together with two other groups in parliament to propose defeated presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovich as prime minister.

Ukraine marked the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster today with pealing bells, candlelit ceremonies and parliamentary debates about how much the country still does not know – and how much it needs to do to bring relief to the millions affected by the world’s worst nuclear accident.

Ukrainian mourners carried single red carnations and flickering candles during a solemn memorial ceremony early today to remember the 1986 Chernobyl explosion, an event that continues to scar the psyche of the ex-Soviet republic 20 years later.

Ukraine today opened a week of commemorations 20 years after the world’s worst nuclear disaster, as international radiation and health experts gathered for a three-day conference to discuss the lessons of the Chernobyl accident.

President Viktor Yushchenko’s party has reportedly given its backing to a restoration of the Orange Revolution team, calling for a coalition to be formed with its estranged ally, Yulia Tymoshenko, and the Socialists, Ukrainian media reported today.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko today criticised the slow pace of the vote count in the country’s parliamentary election, with no result after some 43 hours of counting, and warned of potential fraud.

Pressure today grew on Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko to revive the divided Orange Revolution team as election returns showed combined support for their pro-Western reformist parties outpacing that of the pro-Russian opposition leader.

UKRAINIANS voted in a parliamentary election yesterday that could tip the divided ex-Soviet republic back toward Russia just 16 months after the Orange Revolution protests helped set it on a Westward course.

Pro-Moscow opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych tonight declared his party the winner of Ukraine’s parliamentary election.

Ukrainians voted in a parliamentary election today that could tip the divided ex-Soviet republic back toward Russia just 16 months after the Orange Revolution protests helped set it on a Westward course.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko today accused his nation’s parliament of destabilising the political situation there .

Ukraine today vehemently denied the existence of secret prisons allegedly run by the US Central Intelligence Agency on Ukrainian soil.

Ukrainians and experts worried today about a surge in consumer prices, a day after Russia and Kiev reached a deal to end a gas row that rattled Europe and roiled relations between both countries.

European buyers of Gazprom’s natural gas today said they were receiving full supplies after the Russian monopoly increased shipments through Ukraine.

Russia’s natural gas monopoly Gazprom halted sales to Ukraine today in a price dispute.

Western Europe was warned that its supplies of gas could be hit if Russia carries out its threat to cut off fuel to Ukraine on New Year’s Day.

Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom today criticised a proposal by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko to freeze the price of gas it supplies to Ukraine until January 10.

The US coalition in Iraq saw its size dwindle today as Ukraine and Bulgaria said all of their troops had left the country while Poland said it would remain, but reduce its number of troops by 600 next year.