Corey Flintoff

A rooster crowing in the dead of night? A sinister ice-cream truck playing a creepy tune as it trundles through the streets of Moscow? No, it's the musical automaton clock at the Puppet Theater.

Nearly 30 percent of Russian children with disabilities end up in state orphanages, where they can suffer neglect and abuse at understaffed facilities, according to a human rights group.

Separatists in eastern Ukraine hold their own elections Sunday as part of an effort to create an independent state. Meanwhile, fighting for control of Donetsk's airport continues, despite a ceasefire.

Ukraine's parliament election is tapping into the raw frustrations of a country ripped apart by war. In the first ballot since the Moscow-backed president was removed, can the damage be repaired?

It could be the next big spy movie: an Estonian intelligence agent nabbed by Russia on spy charges. Russia says he was spying on them; Estonia says he was kidnapped in a cross-border raid.

Ukraine and the West insist that the Russian army has been fighting in eastern Ukraine, a charge Russia denies. But reports from Russia now acknowledge that Russian soldiers are part of the battle.

Some foreign policy analysts say that factions in Moscow are competing to influence Russian President Vladimir Putin as he decides policy on Ukraine. Others say that Putin is pursuing his own line.

Fierce fighting continued overnight in eastern Ukraine along the Russian border, and Russia's foreign minister rejected U.S. claims that his country has been supporting pro-Russia fighters there.

Following the downing of the Malaysian airliner over eastern Ukraine, local residents have been talking about the event — but the picture is being distorted by a propaganda campaign in local media.

The first investigators have reached the crash site of the Malaysian airliner in eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, fighting flared in Donetsk between separatists and armed groups supporting the government.