UKRAINIAN SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS DEATH SENTENCE ON SERIAL KILLER. The Supreme Court on 26 August rejected the appeal to commute the death sentence handed down to serial killer Anatoliy Onopriyenko to life imprisonment. Onopriyenko was sentenced in April after being found guilty of 52 murders. However, Onopriyenko may avoid execution because in 1997 Ukraine introduced a moratorium on carrying out the capital punishment. The Council of Europe is urging Ukraine to abolish the death sentence. There are "more than 410 persons" currently on death row in Ukraine, according to ITAR-TASS. JM

UKRAINIAN DEPUTY PREMIER URGES ZERO DEFICIT BUDGET FOR 2000. Deputy Premier Serhiy Tyhypko said on 26 August that a "zero budget deficit should be approved for next year's budget," the "Eastern Economic Daily" reported. Tyhypko argued that if the parliament approves a large budget deficit, the government will have to take out foreign loans to cover it. He added that the cabinet does not plan to issue any T-bills in the near future. JM

GEORGIA, ESTONIA DISCUSS ECONOMIC, SECURITY COOPERATION. Georgian Foreign Minister Irakli Menagharishvili and his visiting Estonian counterpart, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, discussed in Tbilisi on 26 August the prospects for defense and security cooperation both on a bilateral basis and within the framework of NATO's Partnership for Peace program, Caucasus Press reported. They also reviewed the prospects for cooperation between GUUAM and the Baltic States, with Ilves noting the particularly good relations between the Baltic States, Georgia, and Ukraine. The two ministers also signed a trade and economic cooperation agreement. LF