UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT CALLS FOR BAN ON DAILY TO BE LIFTED. The parliament on 3 February passed a resolution urging the government to allow the daily "Pravda Ukrainy" to resume publishing (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 January 1998), AFP reported. Former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, the leader of the Hromada party (which is strongly supported by "Pravda Ukrainy"), accused the government of exceeding its authority in banning the newspaper and of "rude reprisals" against opposition media. The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists also decried the ban and sent a letter to Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma on 3 February asking him to reverse the decision. PB

GERMAN PRESIDENT PRAISES UKRAINE'S FOREIGN-POLICY ACHIEVEMENTS. Roman Herzog said after talks with Kuchma in Kyiv that Germany fully supports the country's moves toward closer relations with Western European structures, dpa reported on 4 February. Herzog praised Kyiv's charter with NATO, its bilateral treaties with Romania and Russia, and its participation in peacekeeping in the former Yugoslavia. But the German president criticized the slow pace of reforming the economy, which, he said, had resulted in weak foreign investment. Herzog is also to meet with Prime Minister Valery Pustovoitenko and parliamentary speaker Oleksandr Moroz during his three-day visit. PB

SACKED YALTA CITY HEAD DEFIES KUCHMA. Aleksandr Kalyus, who was fired as head of the Yalta city council, and 10 local deputies are refusing to leave the city hall, RFE/RL's Ukrainian service reported on 3 February. Kalyus was sacked for alleged mismanagement in a decree issued by President Kuchma on 29 January. Kuchma said Kalyus was incapable of "reviving economic and political activity in the city and of strengthening the fight against crime." Kalyus was to be replaced by a government official until elections on 31 March. Several hundred Kalyus supporters have gathered at the city hall to protest his ouster as unconstitutional. According to media reports, police had surrounded the building and removed a bomb from the roof. Kalyus said those reports were an attempt to get him and his supporters to evacuate the building. PB