A Pakistan International Airlines’ Fokker passenger plane crashed on Monday killing all 45 people on board, the police chief in the central city of Multan said. ”Everyone is dead. I am standing at the site,” said police chief Iftikhar Babar. Flight PK 688, en route for Lahore before flying on to Islamabad, crashed 10 minutes after take-off from Multan airport.
Britain has thrown out a lawsuit worth millions of pounds in compensation to victims of arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh. The House of Lords this week dismissed a case brought by Binod Sutradhar against the British Geological Survey. Sutradhar claimed the survey was negligent in not testing for arsenic during a water evaluation in Bangladesh.
<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=soccer_world_cup_2006"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/272488/icon_focuson_wc3.gif" align=left border=0></a>France captain Zinedine Zidane, sent off for headbutting Marco Materazzi late in Sunday’s World Cup final loss to Italy, won the Golden Ball award for the tournament’s best player. The results were released on Monday morning in Berlin by Fifa.
South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance has announced a reshuffle of four key posts in its shadow cabinet, including the shifting of fiery health spokesperson Dianne Kohler-Barnard to the safety and security portfolio. Kohler-Barnard takes over from Free State MP Roy Jankielsohn.
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz urged the G8 +5 leaders, which includes South Africa, over the weekend to reach an agreement in the faltering Doha round trade talks when they meet in St Petersburg on July 17. The Doha round has been reeling against the ropes after talks in Geneva in the first week of July ended without a deal.
The latest Ernst & Young investment management index shows that all investment managers who responded to the survey are satisfied with current business conditions. On the back of this continued confidence, they have increased their spending levels considerably in the second quarter of 2006.
![]()
To the very end of his career, Zinedine Zidane could dictate the flow of play with rare skill and elegant control of the ball. In the World Cup final, Zidane lost control of his temper. The parting image for the France captain will forever be him rearing back in anger, lowering his head and launching his bald crown into the chest of Italy defender Marco Materazzi after the two exchanged words.
Uganda added more than a month to a deadline for thrashing out a peace deal with northern rebels on Monday, boosting landmark talks this week that will aim to end one of Africa’s most neglected wars. Tentative discussions between Ugandan officials and representatives of the Lord’s Resistance Army are due to begin on Wednesday in Juba, in neighbouring southern Sudan.
![]()
One person was conspicuous by his absence from the podium when Italy’s players received their winners’ medals and German President Horst Koehler handed their captain Fabio Cannavaro the World Cup. The president of football’s world controlling body Fifa Joseph Blatter was not amongst the host of dignitaries present at the award ceremony after the 5-3 penalty shoot-out win over France.
The leader of Somalia’s Islamic militia said on Monday that his group will "fight to the finish" against supporters of a secular warlord in the war-torn capital, one day after fierce fighting killed at least 20 people. The Islamic fighters fired mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades on Sunday at supporters of Adbi Awale Qaybdiid.