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KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukraine's Supreme Court gave the political opposition some breathing room Thursday, ruling that the results of a presidential election are not official until it hears an appeal from a Western-leaning candidate who says it was stolen from him. But there were no indications that opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko's call for a national strike was taking hold, and it was unclear whether the high court even has the right to annul the vote count that gave victory to the Kremlin-backed candidate, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. The opposition increased the stakes further Thursday, calling for a nationwide series...

Pope Asks Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church to Be Patient Patriarchate Plan Being Studied in Light of Orthodox Sensibilities VATICAN CITY, JUNE 3, 2004 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II shares the hopes of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church to be established as a patriarchate, but he asks for patience while the proposal is studied. The Pope is also taking into account the "evaluations" of the Orthodox Churches. He expressed this today when receiving in audience Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, archbishop major of Lviv of the Ukrainians, with the members of the Permanent Synod of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church. "I share your aspiration, well-founded in the...

The words "Byzantine" and "Greek" in the past have been used to describe the Eastern Catholic Churches, which consist of seventeen churches with roots in particular countries, all in full communion with the Pope. The largest ones found in America are the Ruthenian (Eastern European), Melkite (many countries of the Middle East), Maronite (Lebannon), Ukrainian (Russia), and Coptic (Egyptian) churches. Eastern rite liturgies are characterized by sung liturgies, elaborate vestments, small congregations, and varied ethnic customs, reflecting the traditions of the different countries of the rite. The Eastern churches draw their membership mainly from their home countries, with a small...

A major highway connecting Moscow and the Ukrainian city of Simferopol has been sealed off after explosions tore through an arms depot in south Ukraine on Thursday, sending ammunition and shrapnel flying across a 10-km (six-mile) radius and prompting the evacuation of nearly 10,000 residents, Russian media reported. There are varying reports on casualties: several Russian agencies have said there were numerous casualties, without naming the figures, while Reuters, citing the Emergency Ministry, has said no casualties have been reported. No Russian casualties have been reported so far, although some of the towns that were evacuated are close to the...

A judge in the United States has ordered the deportation of an elderly Ukrainian-born man accused of being a guard at a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. Theodor Szehinskyj, 79, is accused of serving in a Waffen-SS Death's Head unit during the war and helping to guard prisoners in the Fross-Rosen, Sachsenhausen and Warsaw concentration camps from 1943 to 1945. Tens of thousands of Jews were put to death in the camps. A retired machinist, he has told investigators in Philadelphia he was a farmhand during the war and had nothing to do with the Nazis. Mr Szehinskyj...

KIEV: The US ambassador to Ukraine said on Friday that American forces in Iraq have so far found no radar systems that Washington suspected were sold to Baghdad and would put American and British pilots at risk. The United States said last year it had verified the authenticity of a July 2000 recording in which Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma is allegedly heard approving the sale of four Kolchuha radar systems to Iraq in violation of UN sanctions. US officials feared the systems could enable Iraq to target warplanes enforcing no-fly zones. Asked whether US forces had found evidence of Kolchuha...

A leading Ukrainian judge, Yuri Vasylenko, has opened a criminal case against the country's president, Leonid Kuchma after accusations that he violated 11 articles of the country's criminal code. Mr Kuchma is alleged to have been involved in the sale of sophisticated Kolchuga radar systems to Iraq. He is also accused by political opponents of ordering the murder of an investigative journalist, Georgiy Gongadze, who wrote about corruption in high places. "I had no grounds not to open the criminal case against the president," Mr Vasylenko said before a news conference by opposition leaders. The opposition has also accused Mr...

The crash of a fighter jet at a Ukrainian air show which killed 85 people was caused by pilot error, an official report into the incident has concluded. The head of the commission set up to investigate the crash said the pilots had failed to follow the flight plan and performed difficult manoeuvres which they had not done before. Yevhen Marchuk added that operational issues, organisational problems and a lack of safety measures had contributed to make it the world's worst air show disaster. The Su-27 jet ploughed into spectators after touching the ground when flying too low during the...

A TV frame shows spectators looking on as a SU-27 fighter plane crashes while performing maneuvers at an airshow near the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, July 27, 2002. The Ukrainian fighter jet hurtled to the ground and cartwheeled into a ball of flame during an airshow at Lviv on Saturday, killing around 40 and injuring dozens of spectators, officials said. REUTERS TELEVISION

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