Kiev/Aachen, Germany - The management of a Ukrainian art museum on Saturday refused to return to Germany dozens of paintings brought to the Soviet Union as a result of the Second World War.

Officials from the Simferopol Art Museum in south Ukraine told Germany's Foreign Ministry the museum "had no plans to give up" the 87 paintings thought originally to have belonged to the Suermondt- Ludwig Art Museum in the German city Aachen, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.

Hamburg  - Ukrainian heavyweight Vitali Klitsch

Hamburg - Ukraine heavyweight Vitali Klitschko has been ordered to make a mandatory defence of his World Boxing Council (WBC) title against the German-based Cuban Juan Carlos Gomez.

The WBC agreed at its 46th general assembly in Chengdu, China Thursday that should the promoters of both boxers fail to agree on a fight, the bout would be open to purse bids on December 19 at the WBC's headquarters Mexico City.

Klitschko, 37, returned to the ring after a four-year absence to reclaim the WBC belt last month by beating Samuel Peter in a one-sided fight in which the Nigerian retired after the eighth round.

Kiev- Ukraine's political leadership on Thursday was hopeful a 16.4-billion-dollar International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan would improve the former Soviet republic's current bleak economic outlook - an opinion shared neither by markets nor independent experts.

"This is good news, the reaction of investors is positive," said President Viktor Yushchenko at a meeting with top bank managers. "This (the IMF loan) is a signal for world society to increase its level of trust towards our country."

Kiev - Ukraine is a paradise for motorists addicted to chatting on mobile phones and driving at the same time, and the former Soviet republic's police face an uphill battle breaking the habit.

At a busy Kiev central city intersection on a sunny autumn afternoon, phone conversations audible through open windows displayed nothing less than epidemic violation of already-existing regulations banning phone calls behind the wheel. One in 10 drivers was on his or her mobile at any given moment, a Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa reporter estimated over a half hour of observation.

Kiev - Ripples from the world financial crisis have shut down most Ukrainian preparation work for the Euro 2012 football championship, government officials said Thursday.

As much as 80 per cent of the infrastructure projects needed in the former Soviet republic to host the premier sports event have come to a complete stop for lack of funding or because of administrative difficulties, said Evhen Vilinsky, a spokesman for Ukraine's Euro 2012 preparation ministry.