UKRAINE RATIFIES EUROPEAN HUMAN RIGHTS CONVENTION.

In a long-awaited step, the Ukrainian parliament has ratified the European Convention on Human Rights and five attached protocols. The legislature took no action on a sixth protocol that would have outlawed capital punishment. That proposal is unpopular in Ukraine because of rising crime. However, the country has this year adhered to a de facto moratorium on executions in order to live up to its 1995 commitment to the Council of Europe to abolish the death penalty. (DINAU, July 18)

Chernomyrdin Returns Empty-Handed from Brussels.