Kiev - The Ukrainian heavyweight boxer Wladimir Klitschko on Wednesday accused US boxing promoter Don King of blocking an undisputed world heavyweight title bout against Russian Nikolai Valuev.

Klitschko, 33, holds the IBF, WBO, and IBO world heavyweight titles. A fight between Klitschko and Valuev, holder of the WBA heavyweight belt, would arguably make the winner the world's unchallenged top heavyweight fighter.

Wladimir Klitschko's older brother Vitali, holds the WBC belt, but both Klitschkos have rejected the idea of their ever fighting each other.

Kiev - The international financial crisis and its devastating impact on Ukrainian state revenues has stranded a 40- metre Christmas tree in the central square of the capital Kiev, the Interfax news agency reported Tuesday.

Near-empty city hall accounts and outstanding debt have left the Kiev city government without funds to dismantle the evergreen erected for end-of-the-year holidays, said Oleksandr Brihinets, a Kiev city deputy.

"The tree could be still standing until St. Valentines' Day... and maybe even until May," Brihinets said. "The city has no money."

Brussels - Ukraine will stand by the terms of the deal which ended its gas row with Russia, even though not all the details are to its liking, President Viktor Yushchenko said on Tuesday.

"The agreements signed are not easy ones, but Ukraine fully takes up the performance (of its commitments) and guarantees full-fledged transit to European consumers," Yushchenko told journalists in Brussels after a meeting with the head of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso.

Kiev - Murdered Russian journalist, Anastasia Baburova, was buried in Ukraine on Monday, with family and friends attending a ceremony in the city of Sevastopol.

Unknown assailants gunned down Baburova in Moscow a week ago as she attempted to prevent the shooting of an associate, Russian human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov.

Markelov died immediately in the apparent contract hit. Baburova was shot while attempting to apprehend one of his attackers, and died hours later in a Moscow hospital.

Ukrainian police presence was heavy at the funeral in the Black Sea port city in Ukraine's ethnically-Russian Crimean peninsula.

Kiev - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko rejected as "illegal" parliament's sacking Monday of the head of the country's national bank, marking a worsening political deadlock in the former republic.

Ukraine's national legislature, the Verhovna Rada, in a morning session voted no confidence in Volodymyr Stelmakh, director of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), citing a fall by nearly half in the value of the Ukrainian currency the hryvna since November, a shrinking economy, and rising government deficits.

Kiev- State revenue in Ukraine plummeted in January due to a wide-reaching economic slowdown, a senior government official said Monday.

Government income was down 80 per cent as compared to 2008, with no relief in sight, said Roman Besmertny, senior economic advisor to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.

The single-month drop in real official collections was the worst since Ukraine's years of hyper-inflation in the early 1990s, he said.