The United States is to begin training Ukrainian army troops in an expansion to its military involvement in the divided country, the State Department said Friday.

U.S. troops have already deployed in small numbers to Ukraine to train National Guard forces, but under the new plan would also take on regular military units.

A Russian physicist who worked for a top German research institute is suspected of spying for Moscow between 2009 and 2011, according to a report in German weekly Der Spiegel to be published Saturday.

The 28-year-old specialized in quantum optics and nanophotonics -- used to make high-powered computers -- and worked for the Max Planck Institute for several months between 2009 and 2011.

A Russian businessman wanted over the death of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko spoke of how he wanted the Kremlin critic to be killed with a "very expensive poison", an inquiry heard Friday.

Interviews between German police and a witness identified only as D3, a friend of Dmitry Kovtun, were read out at the London probe into Litvinenko's death.

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to give Silvio Berlusconi Russian citizenship -- and the job of economy minister -- the disgraced Italian billionaire politician was quoted as saying Thursday.

"In Italy, I have been relegated to the sidelines, but Putin has told me he is willing to give me citizenship, and entrust me with running the economy ministry," La Stampa newspaper quoted him as saying at a dinner party.

EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini will visit Iran and Saudi Arabia next week following the agreement she helped broker with Tehran on its contested nuclear program, her office said Thursday.

The talks in Saudi Arabia on Monday will cover "regional issues, in the aftermath of the agreement reached on 14 July on the Iranian nuclear issue, as well as international issues of common interest," a statement said.

Finland's defense minister on Wednesday denied recent reports that his country is planning to deploy rapid response units along its border with Russia, amid intense regional tensions over the crisis in Ukraine.

"We don't have any new units, and during peacetime no redeployment of units is happening," Jussi Niinisto told Finnish news agency STT.

Ukraine vowed to fight on Wednesday to ensure the return and trial of its exiled Russian-backed president after his name was unexpectedly removed from Interpol's international most wanted list.

The former Soviet state's leader Viktor Yanukovych was toppled by a wave of bloody protests and fled to Russia with the help of Kremlin security agents in February 2014.

More than 20 people were killed and dozens injured in road accidents in two separate Russian regions, authorities said Wednesday.

Eleven people were killed and 28 injured in a bus accident Wednesday outside the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, the regional police force said in a statement.

Russia on Tuesday announced that the trial of Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko, whose politically charged case  has become emblematic of bitter tensions between Kiev and Moscow, will begin later this month. 

The trial of the 34-year-old helicopter navigator and Ukrainian lawmaker, who faces up to 25 years in prison for her alleged involvement in the killing of two Russian journalists, will begin on July 30 in the southern Russian city of Donetsk, a local court said. 

Russia said Monday it has introduced an alternative U.N.resolution opposed to creating a tribunal that would prosecute those responsible for the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over rebel-held east Ukraine.

The Netherlands, whose citizens made up the majority of the 298 people killed in the July 2014 disaster, is working with Malaysia and other countries to create an international tribunal.