Ukraine says rebels destroyed MH17 evidence as battles flare

Ukraine accused Russia and pro-Moscow rebels on Saturday of destroying evidence of "international crimes" from the wreckage of the Malaysian airliner that Kiev says militants shot down with a missile, killing nearly 300 people.

Fighting and artillery barrages flared near the Russian border in the hours after President Barack Obama called the loss of flight MH17 a "wake-up call" to Europe to join the United States in threatening Moscow with heavier economic sanctions if it does not use its influence to help end a conflict that has driven the gravest East-West confrontation since the Cold War.