Lawmakers approve anticorruption-court amendment in bid for IMF aid:
Ukrainian lawmakers have approved an amendment to a law establishing an anticorruption court in an effort to secure more funding under a $17.5 billion aid-for-reforms program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
It was not immediately clear whether the amendment would meet the IMF's requirements.
Establishing an anticorruption court is one of three conditions that the IMF has laid down for Ukraine to get further loans.
The other two issues involve raising natural-gas prices closer to market levels and honoring commitments to restrain budget spending.
Four days after Ukraine's parliament passed the bill on establishing an anticorruption law, President Petro Poroshenko signed it into law on June 11.
But the IMF wanted the law amended so that appeals to existing corruption cases would fall under the new court's jurisdiction.
It was not immediately clear if the amendment was fully in line with the IMF's requirements.
The IMF has called the establishment of an anticorruption court a "benchmark" of Ukraine's progress toward Western legal standards, and has said it would help ease the release of its loans in the future.
Corruption was among the problems that prompted Ukrainians to take to the streets and oust a Moscow-friendly government in 2014, but it remains a major hurdle to prosperity in the ex-Soviet republic.
Western officials say Ukraine will be far better equipped to resist interference from Russia -- which seized its Crimea region in 2014 and backs separatist militants who hold parts of two eastern provinces -- if it takes serious steps to combat graft. (Gordonua.com and Reuters)