Twenty people are feared dead after a passenger plane crashed near Kazakhstan’s principal city, Almaty, today.

Kazakhstan’s acting border service chief was among 27 people killed in a military plane crash today near a southern city, another blow to the agency after he was appointed in June to deal with the aftermath of a mass killing involving a conscript.

BERNARD DUNNE was reluctant to make any predictions other than to say that he is not going to lose this fight when he took time out to relax yesterday in advance of tomorrow night’s defence of his European Super-Bantamweight title against Yersin Jailauov at The Point.

A Kazakh woman has become the ninth mother to become infected with the virus that causes Aids amid an outbreak among children in southern Kazakhstan blamed on doctors’ negligence, a news agency reported today.