UKRAINE CHUCKS ITS GOVERNMENT….

Communists in parliament teamed up with representatives of the oligarchs who control the country’s energy industry to vote Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko out of office. Yushchenko had the last-minute, lukewarm support of President Leonid Kuchma, but even most Kuchma loyalists joined the majority in the 263-60 vote against the prime minister. Yushchenko, who polls say is the country’s most popular political figure, vowed “I will be back,” but parliamentary elections are over a year away and presidential elections are not until 2004. Ukraine seems headed for a long period of weak government. That will be nothing new: The next prime minister will be the ninth in ten years.