- I won’t be vacationing in Russia anytime soon – an anti-Kremlin blogger was taken into police custody and shot dead! His site responded with allegations that the Russian government was cracking down on Ingushetia, a small Muslim region trying to succeed from Russia. First regarded as ‘an accident’, now the official story is the website’s owner tried to wrestle a gun away (while in custody?) and then was shot in the temple.
- Ukrainian heptathlete Lyudmila Blonska was given a lifetime ban on Friday after testing positive for an anabolic steroid at the Olympic Games – she was given the stiffest punishment because it was her second doping offence.
An ammunition depot near Lozovaya caught on fire causing 6500 people to be evacuated in the area, lighting up the sky. The explosions did not spread out past the base, despite the neighboring forest fire that caused the incident. Luckily no casualties were reported. - A Ukrainian minister warned that if the European Union did not flash positive signals on Ukraine’s membership soon, it would send a message to Russia that it could influence policy by military actions. President Yushchenko warns ‘any country could be next‘.
- Meanwhile the EU has claimed it will give ‘support’ to Ukraine’s territorial inviolability and sovereignty, but have provided no real prospect for EU membership.
- Dick Cheney is coming!
- A Ukrainian window washer’s death in New York has re-sparked debate about the profession’s safety there.
- Ukraine and Romania have taken their dispute over their maritime border to the World Court and the UN to divide an estimated 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas and oil reserves under the Black Sea.
- Dima “DIMAGA” Filipchuk has gained in popularity, narrowly beating veteran Eugin “Strelok” Oparyshev in Kyiv at World Cyber Games Ukraine 2008.
- The secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council was expelled from the opposition Party of Regions on Monday after disputing the party’s support for Russia’s recognition of Georgia’s rebel regions.