The World Bank Board resolved Tuesday to grant Ukraine loans totaling $949.6 million. The Ukrainian Embassy in the US told UNIAN that Ambassador Yuri Shcherbak and WB Regional Director Paul Siegelbaum signed the loan agreements in Washington.
$300 million will be provided for financial adjustments; $16.4 million for the development of the Treasury, and another $300 million for the development of Ukrainian enterprises. Messrs. Shcherbak and Siegelbaum also signed changes in and amendments to the coal industry adjustment loan agreement signed by Ukraine and the World Bank on December 12, 1996, whereby Ukraine will receive a $160 million loan. All these loans are granted on standard WB terms and conditions.
In addition, Ukraine and WB signed an agreement on a $23.2 million WB grant to implement a project geared to removing substances ruining the ozone layer.
Will Chornovil be Third?
Last Sunday the session of the Lviv oblast Rukh council almost unanimously supported the candidacy of Yuri Kostenko, former Environmental Protection Minister, as a candidate for President in the coming elections.
Vyacheslav Chornovil, who participated in the session, declared that the party has at least two positions now. There still is some time to decide who is better, Bohdan Boyko, nominated by the central party branch, or Yuri Kostenko, reports Oleksandr Syrtsov, The Day.
Incidentally, Chornovil spoke negatively of certain "unfriendly" mass media trying to stir up a quarrel between the party's leader and Kostenko as well as to destroy the ex-minister's presidential chances. The Day was one of the most "unfriendly" newspapers, being guilty of making public facts with which former dissident Chornovil disagrees.
Simultaneously Chornovil did not omit recalling that he is one of Ukraine's most popular political figures.
Ukrainian Presidential Press Secretary Oleksandr Maidannyk called absurd information spread by a number of Russian periodicals about an attempt on Mr. Kuchma being prepared. One secret service official in charge of the President's bodyguards told Interfax-Ukraine that neither the Interior Affairs Ministry nor SBU had any information on such an alleged attempt, reports Iryna Havrylova, The Day.
Remarkably, allegations about acts of terrorism appear periodically and the pro-Presidential media insistently draws the public's attention to potential malefactors and spare neither time nor space in discussing the possible reasons why these "attempts" never take place. It does not take an analyst to notice that such allegations surface almost simultaneously with decisive moves taken by the opposition, thus indirectly pointing to probable "contractors" on the Chief Executive. Apart from exposing ill-wishers, these campaigns are designed to divert public attention from events threatening Ukraine's political life, while emphasizing the importance of the President's efforts. It is also true, however, that most such "operations" remind one of that story about elusive Joe whom no one could catch because nobody wanted to.
Four Ukrainian women — Tetiana Fesenko, Tetiana Savchenko, Inna Proskura, and Yevhenia Andrieyeva — came in first, winning gold medals in the World Championship in academic rowing held in Keln, Germany. Canadians and Dutch female rowers were second and third respectively. Athletes from 24 countries took part in the tournament.
Last Saturday, the Peace Corps held a memorial service for 64 year-old Victor Verloo, an American Peace Corps volunteer killed in Chernihiv on September 14. As Viktor Shakhov, Director of the Investigation Department of the Chernihiv oblast Prosecutor's Office reported, the murder was committed for mercenary reasons. The investigators know the name of the alleged murderer who has already served ten years for racketeering, theft, and burglaries. He remains at large, but his accomplices have been detained. According to Shakhov, the killer entered the victim's apartment using keys obtained from his accomplices. A computer and telephone set were stolen from the apartment, Serhiy Tsyhankov, The Day's correspondent, reports. Steven Pifer, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the United States of America to Ukraine expressed his deep condolences to those surviving the victim.






