Tallinn - NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer restated the military alliance's desire to see Ukraine join its ranks at a high-level conference being held in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, on Thursday.

In his opening speech, de Hoop Scheffer said the talks were taking place at a special moment in NATO-Ukraine relations.

Tallinn- NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer restated the military alliance's desire to see Ukraine join its ranks at a high-level conference being held in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, on Thursday.

In his opening speech, de Hoop Scheffer said the talks were taking place at a special moment in NATO-Ukraine relations.

Tallinn - NATO secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer restated the military alliance's desire to see Ukraine join its ranks at a high-level conference being held in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, on Thursday.

In his opening speech, de Hoop Scheffer said the talks were taking place at a special moment in NATO-Ukraine relations.

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.

Hamburg  - Ukrainian heavyweight Vitali Klitsch