IRAN: A passenger plane crashed into a residential area in Tehran today killing all those on board, including seven children.

The Sepahan Air flight, which had 40 passengers and eight crew members on board, went down near Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport after its engine cut out shortly after take-off.

It was bound for the eastern city of Tabas when it crashed near a market at around 9.18am local time.

CHINA: Eighteen people who took part in violence that killed dozens near the border with Pakistan have handed themselves in, police announced today.

Authorities said a terrorist gang attacked a police station and government buildings in Shache county near Kashgar on July 28, killing 37 people before police shot dead 59 of the attackers.

VENEZUELA: Border guards will close the border with Colombia at night to combat smuggling, including food and petrol, officials said on Saturday.

Venezuela sells petrol at one of the world’s cheapest prices, allowing consumers to fill the tank of a car for the price of a chocolate bar.

The government estimates that 40 per cent of basic commodities are smuggled across the border — equivalent to annual losses of £2.2 billion.

CUBA: Former president Fidel Castro has signed an international manifesto “supporting Palestine,” demanding that Israel respect UN resolutions and withdraw from Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Bolivian President Evo Morales, Argentine artist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Cuban dancer Alicia Alonso and US writer Alice Walker were also among the signatories.

EGYPT: The Supreme Administrative Court has ordered the shutdown of the Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the already banned Muslim Brotherhood.

In its ruling on Saturday the court ordered “the dissolution of the Freedom and Justice Party because it broke the law regarding political parties.”

According to media reports, the decision is final and not open to appeal.

PAKISTAN: Prosecutors charged populist anti-government cleric Mohammed Tahir-ul-Qadri with murder after a policeman was killed during clashes with his supporters.

The constable was wounded in Lahore on Friday in confrontations with the cleric’s followers and died of his injuries late on Saturday, police said.

Violence broke out on Friday after hundreds of the cleric’s baton-wielding supporters tried to remove the shipping containers police had used to block the roads to his party headquarters.

Clashes continued on Saturday between police and his supporters, leaving two others dead including another police officer.

CRIMEA: Hollywood tough guy and musician Steven Seagal played a weekend concert in Crimea, appearing on a stage adorned with the flag of Ukraine rebels.

Seagal and his blues band played late on Saturday at a bikers’ gig in Sevastopol.

The martial artist has come under fire for supporting the exit of the peninsula from Ukraine.

At the corner of the stage hung the black, blue and red flag of the Donetsk People’s Republic.

AFGHANISTAN: A suicide attacker targeted a Nato convoy in Kabul today, killing four civilians and wounding at least 35 others.

Nato said that none of its soldiers had been killed, but did not give any details of injuries in the blast.

“Two children, a woman and a man were killed and 35 others were wounded in the attack,” Kabul police said.