FAMISHED bears in northern Russia have resorted to digging up graves in cemeteries — and reportedly eating at least one body — after a scorching summer destroyed their natural food sources of forest berries and mushrooms, officials said.

About 20 people died today in a nursing home fire in north-western Russia, officials said.

Rescuers found four more bodies in the rubble of a store in northern Russia overnight, bringing the death toll from Monday’s explosion and fire to 24.

Residents of three sparsely populated Siberian regions have voted to reunite in a resource-rich territory that will be larger than Western Europe, Russian media reported today, extending the trend to increased Kremlin control over the country’s far-flung provinces.