Ukraine Ussr

A illness that caused 127 children in a Ukrainian town to lose their hair was probably caused by acid rain that carried high doses of thallium, a newspaper reported Thursday. "Since there are no sources of the discharge of thallium into the environment in Chernovtsy and its environs, a conclusion was drawn that the chemical was introduced to the area by acid rains in July," the Communist Party daily Pravda said.

The co-author of the radical "500-Day Plan" for a transition to a market economy in the Soviet Union resigned in protest Wednesday because President Mikhail S. Gorbachev has decided to implement a more conservative plan.

The co-author of the radical "500-Day Plan" for a transition to a market economy in the Soviet Union resigned in protest Wednesday because President Mikhail S. Gorbachev has decided to implement a more conservative plan.

The Ukrainian Parliament boldly challenged the authority of the Soviet Union's central government Monday with a sweeping declaration of sovereignty that proclaimed the legal precedence on Ukrainian territory of its laws over all national legislation. The declaration goes further than most similar declarations: It spells out a vision of permanent neutrality for the Ukraine and demands full control over its industry, agriculture and natural resources.

Delicate maneuvering is under way along the hushed corridors of Vatican diplomacy in the aftermath of the momentous meeting here between Pope John Paul II and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

Leaders in the Soviet Ukraine made a concession to growing nationalism, announcing plans to make Ukrainian the official language. Preceding talks called for Friday to found a Ukrainian Popular Front movement, they published a language bill similar to laws in the Baltic republics and in Moldavia. The Ukrainian bill is intended "to rectify the current situation where the native language of the bulk of the population is emasculated and more and more rarely used," the Tass news agency said.

A leading Ukrainian nationalist, jailed in the early 1970s for his protests over the "Russification" of the Ukraine, returned to the attack Tuesday, asserting in an article in the Soviet Communist Party's leading journal that the Ukrainian culture is being squeezed into extinction by the present Soviet system.

Several thousand people turned out in Lithuania on Monday to mourn a man who became a martyr of the republic's bid for independence by burning himself to death in a Moscow square last week. Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis was among 5,000 people who filed through the center of the capital, Vilnius, behind the coffin of Stanislovas Zhamaitis, 52.

About 400 people were hospitalized with food poisoning in the Soviet Ukraine after eating locally made pastries, the Communist Party daily Pravda reported Friday. The newspaper said many of those suffering from vomiting, dizziness and stomach pains had eaten pastry produced at a plant in the Vinnitsa region southwest of Kiev. It said salmonella contamination had been found in dairy products produced at the plant. About half the victims were children. No deaths were reported, but a young girl was seriously ill, Pravda said.

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, demonstrating his personal commitment to reviving public faith in the Communist Party, made a surprise trip Thursday to Kiev to oversee the dismissal of the Ukrainian party chief, an unpopular conservative who had controlled the second-largest Soviet republic for 17 years. Vladimir V. Shcherbitsky, 71, a holdover from the now-discredited era of party leader Leonid I.

Several thousand people turned out in Lithuania on Monday to mourn a man who became a martyr of the republic's bid for independence by burning himself to death in a Moscow square last week. Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis was among 5,000 people who filed through the center of the capital, Vilnius, behind the coffin of Stanislovas Zhamaitis, 52.

The Soviet government, allocating $26 billion in additional funds to help the victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster four years ago, acknowledged on Sunday that thousands upon thousands of people are still living in areas dangerously contaminated by radioactive fallout, and even more are eating food grown in those areas.

St. George's Cathedral in Lvov has been returned to Ukrainian Catholics after being used by the Russian Orthodox Church for more than 40 years, according to an announcement by Ukrainian Catholic officials in Rome. The announcement from the temporary see in Rome of the Archeparchy of Lvov said the transfer of the cathedral was authorized April 6 by a 124-6 vote of the newly elected city council of Lvov.

Delicate maneuvering is under way along the hushed corridors of Vatican diplomacy in the aftermath of the momentous meeting here between Pope John Paul II and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev warned Saturday that his reform program will falter across the country if it stumbles in the Ukraine, the Soviet Union's second-largest republic, which recently has been racked by nationalist, labor and religious unrest. Vladimir A. Ivashko, the new Communist Party leader of the republic and a strong Gorbachev supporter who was elected three days ago after the ousting of conservative Vladimir V.

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, demonstrating his personal commitment to reviving public faith in the Communist Party, made a surprise trip Thursday to Kiev to oversee the dismissal of the Ukrainian party chief, an unpopular conservative who had controlled the second-largest Soviet republic for 17 years. Vladimir V. Shcherbitsky, 71, a holdover from the now-discredited era of party leader Leonid I.

Ukrainian activists launched a Baltics-style mass political movement Friday to press for greater political and cultural autonomy for the Soviet Union's second largest republic. Addressing the inaugural congress of the Ukrainian Popular Movement for Perestroika, leading Ukrainian writers and intellectuals called for the Soviet Union to be transformed into a "confederation" of sovereign republics.

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev warned Saturday that his reform program will falter across the country if it stumbles in the Ukraine, the Soviet Union's second-largest republic, which recently has been racked by nationalist, labor and religious unrest. Vladimir A. Ivashko, the new Communist Party leader of the republic and a strong Gorbachev supporter who was elected three days ago after the ousting of conservative Vladimir V.

Roman Dovah, a 9-year-old Ukrainian who wants to be a priest when he grows up, says his proudest possession is a cross his mother gave him last month. But Roman wears it only at home, or when he goes to services of the outlawed Ukrainian Catholic Church, to which his family belongs. He is afraid to wear the religious ornament to school, he said, because his classmates or teacher might see it when he changes clothes for gym class.

Ukrainian activists launched a Baltics-style mass political movement Friday to press for greater political and cultural autonomy for the Soviet Union's second largest republic. Addressing the inaugural congress of the Ukrainian Popular Movement for Perestroika, leading Ukrainian writers and intellectuals called for the Soviet Union to be transformed into a "confederation" of sovereign republics.