Kiev - An underground explosion killed five Ukrainians attempting to remove coal and scrap metal from an abandoned mine, a Ministry of Emergency Situations official said Monday.

The blast took place in a locked-down shaft near the village Trubne, in the eastern Luhansk province.

It was not immediately clear whether the victims died in the explosion or the ensuing below-ground fire, Channel 5 television reported.

Investigating police said a methane gas buildup and unsafe use of metal objects was a probable cause of the explosion.

Kiev - A Ukrainian construction firm will likely be named the general contractor for a massive overhaul of the stadium slated to hold the Euro 2012 final, a government official said Tuesday.

Three home-grown companies are in the frontrunning for the project estimated at 365 million dollars (290 million euros), Anatoly Berkut, Vice Minister for Regional Developement, told a news conference.

The firms he identified - Kievgorstroi, Ukrmonolitspetsbud and Stalkonstruksia - are among the former Soviet republic's top construction firms. However, none has experience building a football stadium to international standards.

Kiev- Political chaos in Ukraine intensified on Wednesday with
parliament sacking speaker Arseny Yatseniuk but failing to name a
replacement.

An alliance of pro-Russia, pro-Europe, and independent MPs
assembled a 233-vote majority in the 450-seat house, to give the
pro-Europe Yatseniuk his walking papers.

Yatseniuk, a former ally of President Viktor Yushchenko, called the
legislature's decision proof that "Democracy in Ukraine, as it was
before, remains under threat."

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.

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.