Kiev  - Hundreds of striking Ukrainian bus drivers blocked key roads in Kiev to protest against increased licensing fees and allegedly oppressive city government regulations, snarling traffic and stranding thousands of motorists.

More than 700 privately-owned buses were parked on Kiev's main thoroughfare the Khreshchatyk by early morning, causing commuter delays of up to an hour.

The bus drivers were demonstrating against transportation licensing fees hikes newly-enacted by Kiev city mayor Leonid Chernovetsky.

Brussels  - The European Union and Ukraine on Monday are set to agree on a programme of political reforms and physical repairs to the former-Soviet state's giant gas network, EU officials said.

One fifth of all the natural gas consumed in the EU flows through Ukraine's 13,500-kilometre network of gas pipelines, but experts say that that network will need some 2.5 billion euros (3.4 billion dollars) in investment over the next six years just to keep pipes and pumping stations in running order.

Kiev - Ukrainian border police on Thursday arrested four CSKA Moscow supporters attempting to enter the country illegally on foot to attend their team's UEFA Cup match at Shakhtar Donetsk.

News reports said that the CSKA fans were detained near the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, some 400 metres from the international frontier, and charged with illegal border crossing.

Kiev  - Ukrainian law enforcers on Tuesday formally charged the ethnic Nigerian leader of a hugely popular evangelical Christian church of complicity in bilking his congregation of millions, the Interfax news agency reported.

Pastor Sunday Adelaja, senior pastor of Embassy of God in Kiev, Ukraine, was among the ringleaders in an international scheme to attract funds from Ukrainian churchgoers into questionable Nigerian businesses run by friends and relatives, the accusation read in part.

Kiev  - The German real estate developer ECE Projektmanagement on Tuesday announced it was shutting down its operation in the former Soviet republic Ukraine, the Interfax news agency reported.

ECE Ukraine, the branch office of the Hamburg-headquartered company, will close its doors for good by March's end with all staff sacked, according to the report.

The company was freezing all operations in Ukraine for the "indefinite future", according to a statement.

Kiev  - Manufacturing in the former Soviet republic of Ukraine is down by nearly a third over 2008 indicators, but recent data gives hope an economic turnaround is in sight, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said Monday.

"Practically in all sectors with the exception of energy we already are registering positive growth, and some industries are up as much as 20 per cent," she claimed, in comments reported by Interfax.