FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN UKRAINE INCREASES. Foreign investment in Ukraine totaled $335.5 million during the first half of 1997, a 46.1 percent increase over the same period last year, Ukrainian Television reported on 13 August, citing the Statistics Committee. The largest investors were the United States ($315 million), Germany ($165.9 million), the Netherlands ($160.2 million), Great Britain ($130.9 million), Cyprus ($116.4 million), Russia ($114.2 million) and Liechtenstein ($103.1 million). Investments are mainly in the food industry, machine building, metal processing, finance and insurance, construction and construction materials production, and the chemical and petrochemical industries.

FUNERAL OF ODESSA EDITOR. More than 20,000 people attended the funeral on 13 August of Borys Derevyanko, editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Vechernya Odesa," who was murdered two days earlier by an unknown assailant, UNIAN reported. Robert Menard, the secretary-general of the Paris-based Reporters sans frontiers, has sent a letter to President Leonid Kuchma expressing concern over Derevyanko's murder. He called on the authorities to find the murderer, investigate the motive, and ensure protection of "Vechernya Odesa" reporters. Meanwhile, UNIAN reported 13 August that Konstiantyn Serdiuk, the editor-in-chief of "Chernihivskiy Pivden," an independent newspaper, was beaten up on 8. August by three unknown persons. He was hospitalized and diagnosed as having suffered brain damage with internal bleeding.