Global News Post: Ukraine

Angered Chernobyl protesters storm Ukrainian Parliament

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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">KIEV (RIA Novosti)- Some 1,000 former Chernobyl disaster clean-up crew members angered with planned cuts of social benefits have stormed the Ukrainian parliament building.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The protesters chanting “Shame!” crashed through the metal cordon surrounding the building but were stopped by police from entering the parliament.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The protesters have demanded that lawmakers leave the building for direct talks and agree to pass amendments to prevent the infringement of former <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Chernobyl</st1:city></st1:place> rescuers and other citizens’ interests.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Several opposition MPs emerged from the building to address the protesters, but their words were inaudible due to the crowd’s chanting.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">In early September, Ukrainian lawmakers passed a bill in the first reading canceling social benefits for some 10 million citizens, including those involved in a clean-up operation following the 1986 <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Chernobyl</st1:city></st1:place> nuclear disaster.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">An explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in April 1986 resulted in highly radioactive fallout in the atmosphere over an extensive area. A 30-kilometer (19-mile) exclusion zone was introduced following the accident.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

Angered Chernobyl protesters storm Ukrainian Parliament

KIEV (RIA Novosti)- Some 1,000 former Chernobyl disaster clean-up crew members angered with planned cuts of social benefits have stormed th...

Ukrainian scientists use bacteria for bomb disposal

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 8.0pt;">Ukrainian scientists use bacteria for<o:p></o:p></span></i></div><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 8pt; font-style: italic;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 8pt; font-style: italic;">bomb disposal </span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/robven/459001652/" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 8pt; font-style: italic; text-decoration: none;">©flickr.com/robylab</a><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;"><st1:city w:st="on"><i>S</i>EVASTOPOL</st1:city>/ <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">MOSCOW</st1:place></st1:city> (RIA Novosti) - Ukrainian scientists have developed a unique explosives-disposal technology involving the use of bacteria, a researcher said on Thursday.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;">It takes between 15 and 115 days for bacteria to “convert” an explosive substance into an organic fertilizer, Gennady Baranov, a research associate with the Biochemical Laboratory at the Sevastopol Institute of Nuclear Power, said.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;">“It is an organic mixture that ‘consumes’ explosives and chemicals, producing an absolutely pure fertilizer,” he said.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;">“We can effectively destroy ammunition from the Great Patriotic War [World War II] out in the field by pouring our mix on an artillery shell, and it literally eats through an explosive, leaving the metal intact so it can be subsequently recycled.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: small;">The technology has been patented but its composition is a secret, Baranov said.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div></td></tr>
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Ukrainian scientists use bacteria for bomb disposal

Ukrainian scientists use bacteria for bomb disposal ©flickr.com/robylab S EVASTOPOL / MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) - Ukrainian scientists ...

Female activists detained during topless protest in Ukraine

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<city w:st="on"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">KIEV-</span></city><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">(RIA Novosti): Police in the Ukrainian capital rounded up on Tuesday at least four feminist activists who staged a topless protest near <place w:st="on"><city w:st="on">Kiev</city></place>'s main sports arena during a visit by UEFA chief Michel Platini.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The demonstration - "Euro without prostitution" - was held as <country-region w:st="on">Ukraine</country-region>, together with <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Poland</place></country-region>, prepares to host the 2012 European Football Championship. Platini arrived in <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Ukraine</place></country-region> on Monday for a two-day inspection.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">It took police some 20 minutes to arrive at the Olympiisky National Sports Complex and detain the activists, who turned to be members of the Femen group.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Topless protests have been used on a number of occasions by Femen activists, most of whom are female university students, to attract public attention to various domestic and international problems.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">"Femen demands that UEFA initiate an explanatory campaign for football fans about the impermissibility of sex tourism and funding the sex industry, and the Ukrainian authorities criminalize the visiting of prostitutes," the group said in a statement on its LiveJournal page.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Prostitution in <country-region w:st="on">Ukraine</country-region> is illegal but widespread, with the country remaining one of the main suppliers of prostitutes to <place w:st="on">Western Europe</place>. In 2005, <country-region w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Ukraine</place></country-region> toughened criminal penalties for human trafficking and coerced prostitution.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Femen has proposed the introduction of criminal responsibility for the use of sex industry services.</span></div>
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Female activists detained during topless protest in Ukraine

KIEV- (RIA Novosti): Police in the Ukrainian capital rounded up on Tuesday at least four feminist activists who staged a topless protest ...

Ukraine Mourns 37 Miners Killed in Friday's Twin Disasters

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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">Ukraine is observing a day of mourning on Sunday for 37 miners killed in accidents at two coal pits in the country's industrial east. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-themecolor: text1;"> <br />
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich ordered state flags to be lowered to half mast, while relatives held the first funerals for the victims of Friday's twin disasters, the country's deadliest since 2007.<br />
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Authorities also recovered the bodies of the last missing miners at the two sites. In one accident, a suspected methane gas explosion shook a mine in the Lugansk region, killing 26 workers. In the other accident, 11 miners were killed when their elevator collapsed at a pit in the neighboring Donetsk region.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-themecolor: text1;">Yanukovich has called for a government commission to investigate the accidents.<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ukraine-3rd-Bradt-Travel-Guide/dp/1841623113?ie=UTF8&tag=glob036-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" imageanchor="1" target="_blank"><img alt="Ukraine, 3rd (Bradt Travel Guide)" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=1841623113&tag=glob036-20" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=glob036-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1841623113" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
Ukraine's coal mines are among the world's most dangerous because of outdated equipment and disregard for safety regulations.</span> <span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-themecolor: text1;">(VOA News)<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

Ukraine Mourns 37 Miners Killed in Friday's Twin Disasters

Ukraine is observing a day of mourning on Sunday for 37 miners killed in accidents at two coal pits in the country's industrial east. ...