Russian rescue services have found the wreckage of a plane that disappeared about 16km from its destination in the far-eastern Amur region.

The Angara airlines An-24 plane, carrying 42 passengers and six crew, had left Blagoveshchensk close to the Chinese border and vanished from radar screens as it approached Tynda airport, officials said.

Amur's regional governor Vasily Orlov said "all necessary resources" had been deployed to find the plane. Five children were among those on board, he added.

A landslide triggered by torrential monsoon rains has killed at least three people in northern Pakistan.

Rescue operations continued searching for 15 missing people.

More than eight vehicles were swept away on Monday when heavy rains triggered a landslide on a highway. Three dead bodies have been recovered.

Flash floods, collapsed buildings and electrocutions have killed 221 people since the monsoon season arrived in the country in late June, with heavier rains than usual.

Cuban Minister for Labour, Marta Elena Feitó Cabrera, has been forced to resign after she made comments denying the existence of beggars on the Communist-run island.

The minister had said there was no such thing as "beggars" in Cuba and people going through rubbish were, in essence, doing so out of choice to make "easy money", as she put it.

A fire that tore through a shopping centre in the Iraqi city of Kut has left at least 61 dead, officials said. The blaze at the mall, which had reportedly opened five days ago, broke out on Wednesday night and has since been brought under control. Firefighters have rescued 45 people from the mall's roof, but state media reported that many are still missing.