Kiev- Troopers from an elite Ukrainian anti-terrorist unit had to use force Tuesday to clear protesting lawmakers from the National Election Commission building.

It was the first outbreak of violence in Ukraine's latest constitutional crisis, begun last week after President Viktor Yushchenko ordered parliament dissolved.

A reported ten MPs supporting Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a Yushchenko opponent, were inside the building in central Kiev at the time of the police assault.

Kiev- Political battle lines hardened Saturday in Ukraine over an early election called by President Viktor Yushchenko.

Members of the party loyal to Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko blockaded offices of the election board in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, reported the Interfax news agency. The protesting politicians called Yushchenko's planned election unconstitutional.

Yushchenko dissolved parliament Wednesday in the wake of the collapse of the governing coalition of his and Tymoshenko's parties last month. The new election was called for December 7.

Kiev - Ukraine's government on Friday ordered the stock market to stay closed, stopping shares trading by state instruction for the third time this week.

Management of the nation-leading PFTS stock exchange said it might allow shares trading later in the day, depending on the situation in both domestic and international markets.

The announcement came after a full day of trading on Thursday, during which stocks listed on the PFTS sank on average some 14 per cent in value.

The Ukrainian government halted trading on Wednesday and Monday as well in an a so-far unsuccessful attempt to slow panic sweeping the market, as Ukrainian shares have been dragged down by bad news in the US, Europe, and Asia.

Kiev- Ukraine's government on Friday claimed a controversial Ukrainian tank shipment hijacked by Somali pirates was destined for the Kenyan army, not wartorn South Sudan - making the fate of the freighter, its cargo, and its hapless 20-man crew even murkier than before.

Kiev  - Ukraine's already-unstable banking sector appeared even more shaky on Thursday with dozens of banks applying formally for government assistance.

A total of 25 loan institutions have filed requests for low- interest credits or other state financing, said Anatoly Shapovalov, a spokesman for the National Bank of Ukraine
(NBU), according to an Interfax news agency report.

The NBU announcement came one day after the Ukrainian government unveiled an unprecedented one-billion-dollar bail-out of Prominevestbank, the country's sixth-largest lender.

Kiev/Moscow - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko set December 7 as the date for fresh elections in an announcement on his website on Thursday.

Yushchenko dissolved parliament in a speech broadcast Wednesday evening and called for fresh elections.

Following the collapse of the pro-Western coalition of Yushchenko's party and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's bloc, it is hoped that fresh elections will offer a way out of the current political impasse.

Ukrainians last voted for a new parliament as recently as September 2007.