Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma will leave on Saturday for a visit to the Sultanate of Brunei and the Kingdom of Thailand. \n \nAs expected, the president will arrive in Brunei on a state visit on March 7, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

Ihor Koliushko, Director of the Centre for Political and Legal Reforms:

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Friday with 262 votes adopted with amendments in the first reading a bill on elections of people's deputies on a proportional basis, which proposes to lower the passing threshold in parliament to 3%.

The decisive role in determining the winner of the competition for the privatization of the Huta Czestochowa metallurgical plant (Poland) was played by the opinion of the Polish security service (ABW, Agencja Bezpieczenstwa Wewnetrznego).

The "Analytics" section has been updated with an article by Mykhailo Shelep: "The deeper into the forest, the more firewood! ...or the more TEC meetings there are, the more confusing the situation becomes with the elections to the regional council..."

Decision of the TEC dated February 28, 2004 - No. 11/1 (Lutsk):

On March 3, reporting conferences of the Kovel district and city branches of the SDPU(o) were held. At the conferences, reports from the branch leaders on their activities in 2003 were heard, and the tasks and ways of their implementation this year were discussed.

Financing of environmental protection facilities in Volyn has improved. This was stated at the board meeting of the eco-resources administration in the Volyn region by its head Rostyslav Mihas. \nIn 2003, 10.1 million hryvnias were utilized from all funding sources, or twice as much as in 2000.

The President of Ukraine recommended that Parliament reconsider the Law "On the Development of the Automotive Industry of Ukraine.

The first batch of Hyundai HD 65 trucks was assembled on the main conveyor of LuAZ, reported the head of the press center of the Lutsk Automobile Plant, Yaroslav Andrushko.