Ukraine News from Kyiv Post http://www.kyivpost.com/

Dear Kyiv Post friends,

The newspaper, as of this issue, now comes out on Fridays instead of Thursdays. The change was made so that we can give readers more of the week's news - and so that our staff can more fully develop the big stories.

Thanks to printing and distribution improvements, we can also deliver the newspaper by Friday night throughout Kyiv - the same as before. So we hope the print readers will enjoy the change. The online readership, where most of our energies are now focused, won't notice much of a change at all. In fact, the new edition of the Kyiv Post has been already updated online. Here are the highlights:

ECONOMIC DOLDRUMS is the banner headline with a great, eye-catching photo by Yaroslav Debelyi of a shopping mall that's empty during what should be peak business hours.

Tired of reading about the economy? So are we! But we're stuck with this crisis, so this week Maryna Irkliyenko decided to lead with the positive news: falling hryvnia means better balance of trade (less imports, more exports, theoretically at least); government seems committed to a more-balanced budget that could unlock billions of dollars in emergency loans; etc.

Has Ukraine bottomed out economically? Read all about it under the headline: EXPERTS LOOK HARD TO FIND HOPE IN NATION'S ECONOMIC, POLITICAL MESS

The other front pager is Oksana Faryna's BANKS WILL NEED BILLIONS; MANY WILL NOT SURVIVE CRISIS. The upshot is that at least $7 billion will be needed to right the wrong ship of finance in Ukraine. Non-performing, delinquent, past-due loans -- whatever name you want to attach -- could reach 30 percent of banks' portfolios this year. Several of the nation's 180 banks will likely go bust by the end of the year.

The other big stories are:

DAISY CHAIN OF BAD DEBTS - Alina Pastukhova traces how Ukraine became such an international deadbeat in paying its utility bills.

MOLDOVAN UPRISING - A revolution is brewing over Ukraine's western border.

SPRING BRINGS FEMEN ON STREETS TO STOP SEX TOURISM - Mini-skirted college women spread the message to foreign tourists: Their bodies are not for sale. Get it?!

EARLY ELECTIONS SEEM LIKELIER FOR OCT. 25 -- A consensus is emerging: Let's vote - don't wait until January, also by Alina Pastukhova.

Opinion/Editorial

DESTRUCTIVE FORCE -- The leader of the largest faction in Ukraine's parliament is a Soviet hack who should go the way of the U.S.S.R. - into political oblivion.

FORGOTTEN LAND -- The unrest in Moldova shows what happens when governments abuse power, are corrupt, and cheat at elections.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR -- Journalists should stop sensationalizing and cover real issues.

CARTOONIST Anatoliy Petrovich Vasilenko finds it humorous that Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili cannot get into the adult movie theater of NATO.

LUKANOV: MY DAYS AS A USELESS KGB INFORMER -- Columnist Yuriy Lukanov was recruited in Soviet times to spy on everyone around him. He didn't turn up anything interesting (by design) for his masters.

CANADA SHOULD NOT BE HAVEN FOR KGB -- Columnist Lubomyr Luciuk thinks that the world should hunt down Josef Stalin's henchmen the same way that it goes after Nazi war criminals - with a vengeance!.

Business

Maryna Irkliyenko and Oksana Faryna take a look at Ukraine's audit and accounting industry in a special Business Focus, plus we have a round-up of business news and people On The Move.

Guide

Alexandra Matoshko finds a restaurant she really likes and clues you in on what to do with your free time in Kyiv.

We've got much more online that we can't fit in print, so we hope you'll check us out today at www.kyivpost.com !!! And look soon for more improvements to our website ...

Thank you very much on behalf of the Kyiv Post staff,

Brian Bonner, chief editor