The Russian Interior Ministry says 11 people were killed and five others injured in southern Russia when a passenger van crashed into a truck.

A fire that ripped through one of Russia's largest public libraries has been likened to a cultural 'Chernobyl'.The blaze began late on Friday at the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences in Moscow, which was created in 1918 and holds more than 14 million items.

Twelve people were killed Friday in shelling in the eastern Ukraine city of Donetsk, an official with the pro-separatist City Council said, as the conflict between the military and pro-Russian separatists escalated in the past week.

A top Russian official has accusing a leading rating agency of trying to turn tycoons against the Kremlin.Standard & Poor's earlier this week downgraded Russia's credit rating to a non-investment grade, for the first time in more than a decade.

Russia's Sports Minister says the government will cut the budget for hosting the 2018 World Cup as part of plans to slash state expenditure while recession looms.The Russian government is cutting its spending by 10 percent across the board after the central bank predicted last month that the economy could contract by up to 4.7 percent this year.

European Union leaders are threatening fresh sanctions against Russia because of what it sees as "growing support" of Moscow for separatists in eastern Ukraine during intensified fighting over the past days.

Ukraine's latest allegations that Russian troops have been deployed into Ukraine are "complete rubbish," the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday.A day earlier, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Russian troops had crossed the border to support pro-Russian rebels.

Ukraine held a day of mourning Thursday after 13 people were killed two days ago when their bus was hit by what the government says was a shell fired by Russian-backed separatists.

Pro-Russian hackers have claimed responsibility for a major attack on German government websites.The group -- CyberBerkut -- said Wednesday it brought down the websites for Germany's parliament and Germany's Chancellor, Angela Merkel.

A youth player for Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala was shot dead in Russia's North Caucasus in the early hours of Sunday morning.Gasan Magomedov was driving towards his family's home when his vehicle came under attack from a "volley of automatic gunfire," according to a statement on the clubs website.