Irish investors among team examining crash site in Egypt.

Bulgaria’s refusal to let Russian cargo planes bound for Syria fly over its territory raises questions about its independence, a senior Russian diplomat has said.

A Russian rocket carrying a Mexican satellite has malfunctioned shortly after its launch – the latest mishap to hit Russia’s troubled space industry, whose Soviet-era glory has been tarnished by a series of launch failures.

Russia’s Mission Control has failed to stabilise a cargo ship spinning out of control in orbit and it is plunging back to Earth.

One of the men accused of murdering poisoned Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko has said he believes the former KGB officer might have killed himself accidentally after handling radioactive material.

Russia’s top investigative body is looking into several possible motives for the killing of prominent opposition figure Boris Nemtsov, including an attempt to destabilise the state, Islamic extremism, the Ukraine conflict and his personal life.

A leading Russian opposition politician, former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov, has been shot dead, Russian officials say.

Intense artillery exchanges between Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed separatists have persisted around a strategic town in eastern Ukraine – fighting that threatens to dash a ceasefire deal brokered by European leaders last week.

Tens of thousands have marched through the Chechen capital to protest the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which again put a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed on its cover.

Ukrainian troops recaptured almost all the territory of Donetsk airport in eastern Ukraine they had lost to separatists in recent weeks, even as thousands gathered in Kiev for a state-sponsored peace march yesterday.

A major exchange of war prisoners is getting under way in eastern Ukraine, with about 370 expected to be released.

A major exchange of war prisoners is getting under way in eastern Ukraine, with about 370 expected to be released.

A major exchange of war prisoners is getting under way in eastern Ukraine, with about 370 expected to be released.

Russian consumers have flocked to stores, frantically buying a range of big-ticket items as they looked to pre-empt price rises following the staggering fall in the value of the rouble over recent days.

Rebels in eastern Ukraine appear to be successfully closing in on the government-held airport in Donetsk, a strategic victory for the pro-Russian separatists that further undermines a shaky ceasefire in the region.

The arrest of a Russian telecoms and oil tycoon has sent shockwaves through the country’s business community, with some fearing a return to the dark days of a decade ago, when the Kremlin asserted its power by imprisoning the country’s then-richest man and expropriating his companies.

GOLFERS TAKE A SWING AT EACH OTHER

Rescue workers, police and even coal miners are combing the site where a Malaysian jet crashed after being shot from the sky.

The Interfax agency has said a Malaysian passenger jet carrying 295 people has crashed in Ukraine.

Russia threatened Ukraine with "irreversible consequences" yesterday after a man was killed by a shell fired across the border from Ukraine, an incident Moscow described in warlike terms as aggression that must be met with a response.

Artillery fire has killed at least four people in a residential area in eastern Ukraine, spurring more people to flee the besieged city of Donetsk and its suburbs.

An insurgent leader's fighters in Ukraine are holding four observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Pro-Russian insurgents are likely to prevent voting tomorrow in half or more of the election districts in the embattled east, Ukrainian officials said.

The Kremlin has said Ukraine’s government should engage in a dialogue with the eastern parts of the country following the controversial referendums where about 90% of voters said they backed their regions’ sovereignty.

Ukraine’s government says it is drawing up plans to withdraw its troops from Crimea, where Russia is steadily taking formal control as its armed forces seize military installations across the peninsula.

The European Commission has proposed new financial assistance of up to €1bn in medium-term loans to Ukraine.

US secretary of state John Kerry warned Russia that Washington and Europe were preparing a tough response to a breakaway vote in Ukraine’s Crimea, depending on how Moscow reacts.

There are reports a political deal to end the bloodshed in Ukraine has been reached following marathon crisis talks.

Cossack militia attacked Russian punk group Pussy Riot with horsewhips as they tried to perform under a sign advertising the Sochi Olympics.

Syrian state media dismissed as “not accurate” a report by news agency Interfax that president Bashar al-Assad told visiting Russian officials that he has no intention of giving up power and that the issue is not up for discussion.

A suicide bomber struck a busy railway station in southern Russia yesterday, killing herself and at least 15 others and wounding scores more, officials said, in a stark reminder of the threat Russia is facing as it prepares to host February’s Olympics in Sochi.

Fifteen people died and scores were wounded when a female suicide bomber struck at a railway station in southern Russia.

Russia said yesterday that former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died of natural causes, not radiation poisoning, but the Palestinian ambassador to Moscow said an investigation would continue, Russian news agencies reported.

Three men from Ingushetia have been jailed for life for their roles in the 2011 bombing of a Moscow airport that killed 37 people, a Russian news agency has reported.

Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova is being sent to a new penal colony, the Interfax news agency reported.

US security leaker Edward Snowden is set to start a new job at a major Russian website, three months after the fugitive was given asylum in Russia, his lawyer said yesterday.

The stock market ended flat yesterday as traders hoped for more economic stimulus from the Federal Reserve, and worried about escalating tensions between the US and Syria.

President Barack Obama and French president Francois Hollande have said they are committed to a political solution in Syria even as they prepare for potential military strikes.

Russia has warned that a US strike on Syria’s atomic facilities might result in a nuclear catastrophe and is urging the UN to present a risk analysis of such a scenario.

Russian immigration officials say they have not received an application from Edward Snowden, the US National Security Agency leaker who wants to get asylum in Russia.

The Irish Government should treat whistleblower Edward Snowden’s asylum plea with the same creativity as the Jack Charlton era, it has been claimed.

A Russian booster rocket carrying three satellites has crashed at a cosmodrome in Kazakhstan shortly after its launch.

Ecuador’s government is considering an asylum request from Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor wanted for revealing secrets.

The former National Security Agency contractor wanted for revealing classified secrets is seeking asylum in Ecuador, foreign minister Ricardo Patino has said.