NEWS IN BRIEF 

The Provisional Investigation Commission to examine the legality of spending budgetary means in Kyiv for the 1996-1998 period asked the General Prosecutor's Office to assist it in its work, reported Interfax-Ukraine. The reason for such a request was that the capital authorities had practically ignored the deputies' activity.

According to the news agency, in the near future information on the progress of the parliamentary investigation will be presented at one of the plenary sessions.

There is a new unit opened at the Kyiv Institute for Nuclear Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine - a new training center for physical protection, registration, and control of nuclear materials.
The US Department of Energy, Ukrainian Ministry of Nuclear Safety, and Institute for Nuclear Studies had initiated establishing a center named for George Kuzmych, an American physicist of Ukrainian descent. All the expenses on establishing and equipping the center were covered by the American side.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Valery Pustovoitenko said in Washington in an interview with Interfax that he is slated to consider new candidatures for government membership. As it is known, such a procedure these days is called "government rotation." At the same time dismissal of the government depends upon the Verkhovna Rada, who is against it, said Parliament Vice Speaker Viktor Medvedchuk during a meeting with Canadian Ambassador Derek Fraser last Thursday. "We do not idealize government work. However, we think it is a crime to dismiss it in the current situation," he said. It is worth mentioning that both dismissal and rotation mean that other people are to replace the current ministers. The only difference is that in the case of a dismissal the Premier has to step down, but in a rotation he does not.