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.

A revival of the natural gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine threatened supplies to western Europe today.

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.

Ukraine president Viktor Yushchenko, the populist politician who survived dioxin poisoning while forcing out the country’s pro-Russian government last year, has been honoured by the US with this year’s John F Kennedy Profile in Courage Award.

Former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Kravchenko shot himself today, hours before prosecutors were to question him about the killing of an investigative journalist five years ago.