Blast hits Socialist party office in Basque country.

MADRID, July 10 (Itar-Tass) -- A powerful explosion rocked the office of the Socialist Party of the Basque Country in the town of Durango in northern Spain overnight.
Eyewitnesses said a masked man placed a package at the entrance to the
building and explosion followed.
There were no casualties, but the building sustained considerable
damage.
Police believe the explosion was staged by the terrorist ETA
organization.

.Ukraine questions Berezovsky on Yushchenko's poisoning.

KIEV, July 10 (Itar-Tass) -- Ukrainian prosecutors suspect Russia's
wanted and self-exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky to be involved in alleged
poisoning of President Viktor Yushchenko and questioned him in London, the
Segodnya daily reported on Thursday.
It said prosecutor Alexei Donskoy questioned Berezovsky in the
Ukrainian embassy in London.
The daily quoted Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolai Golomsha as saying
Berezovsky's suspected involvement "is being investigated very thoroughly".
"We have communicated with Berezovsky in London, and we still have
questions to him and we do not conceal that," Golomsha was quoted as
saying.

.Court tells Yushchenko to hold referendum on NATO.

KIEV, July 10 (Itar-Tass) -- Kiev city court ruled that President
Viktor Yushchenko has to announce a nationwide referendum on Ukrainian
accession to NATO and the Common Economic Space.
The Ukrainian Independent Center for Legal Initiatives said on
Thursday the judgment was passed yet on July 2.
In 2006 4.5 million signatures were collected for holding the
referendum, however Yushchenko did not react, as most Ukrainians oppose
his plan.
In response Viktor Medvedchuk, the head of the secretariat of former
President Leonid Kuchma, filed a suit to the Kiev court accusing
Yushchenko of inaction.
The court held eight hearings in 18 months. The Constitutional Court
also considered the issue and in October 2008 obliged the president to
hold the referendum.

.Ukraine says Russia abuses Russian-speaking notion.

KIEV, July 10 (Itar-Tass) -- The Ukrainian foreign ministry on
Thursday retaliated to Russian accusations of abusing the rights of
Russian-speakers in Ukraine and said Moscow itself does not ensure proper
protection of the rights of Ukrainians in Russia.
"Russian officials have been more frequently making statements
regarding harassment of the rights of the so-called Russian speakers in
Ukraine. Thus the official representative of the Russian foreign ministry
accused Ukraine on July 8 of de-Russification and forced transition of the
educational and information space and the judicial and administrative
sphere of the country completely to the Ukrainian language, although it is
clear that an independent state shall use its state language on its own
territory," the ministry said.
"Such statements are viewed as an attempt to artificially create
tensions between the two peoples by opposing Ukrainians to Russians living
on the territory of our state. Speculating and abusing the definition
Russian-speaking population official Moscow takes the liberty of
instructing how OSCE High Commissioner K. Vollebeck has to access the
situation with the protection of the rights of the Russian minority in
Ukraine," it said.
The ministry specified that ethnic Russians comprise 17 percent, not
17 million of the population and are mostly Ukrainian nationals.
It qualified Russian statements as attempts to distract attention from
unsatisfactory protection of the rights of ethnic Ukrainians in Russia.
The ministry said it expects Moscow to abandon "loud rhetoric" and
develop constructive dialogue regarding proper protection of the rights of
ethnic minorities for the benefit of both countries.
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