World in Brief

Police inquiry into UN fraud

New York: US authorities have begun a criminal inquiry after a UN audit found that fraud and abuse in procurement for peacekeeping operations could run into tens of millions of dollars, UN sources said.

The UN has suspended eight officials on full pay to facilitate the inquiry, which is separate from the investigation into the Oil-for-Food programme for Iraq.

Ambush deaths

Kinshasa: Eight Guatemalan UN troops were killed and fourteen wounded in an ambush in Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rebels from Uganda’s Lord Resistance Army are known to operate in the area. (AP)

Cabinet resigns

Taipei: Frank Hsieh, the Prime Minister of Taiwan, has led his Cabinet of 34 ministers in a mass resignation over President Chen’s hardline policy of antagonism towards China. He believes that the policy is out of step with public opinion. (AP)

Statue found

Cairo: Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a statue of Pharaoh Akhenaten’s mother, Queen Tiy, the Supreme Council of Antiquities said. The team from Johns Hopkins University in America found the 4ft 6in granite statue in Luxor. (AFP)

Crash kills 33

São Paulo: Two buses collided head-on in southern Brazil, killing 33 people and injuring 21, many of them seriously, police said. The crash happened on a main road near Regente Feijó. It was not yet known which bus strayed from its lane. (AFP)

Factory protest

Beijing: Workers protesting at the sale of a factory clashed for three days with baton-wielding police, the news website Boxun.com said. The violence in Chengdu, reflecting China’s social tensions, was said to have left several workers injured, one critically. (AP)

Fugitive’s vow

Manila: Lawrence San Juan, a Philippines army officer who escaped from jail, where he was being held for his alleged part in a 2003 mutiny, vowed on television to fight on for army reforms. His escape has revived rumours of a coup against President Arroyo. (AP)

Singer in clear

Kuala Lumpur: A Malaysian court dismissed a defamation charge against a prominent singer, Sharifah Aini, 53, who had been implicated in a lurid e-mail campaign that portrayed a rival entertainer, Siti Nurhaliza, 27, as an immoral prima donna. (AP)

Tax troubles

Santiago: Santiago: The wife and four of Augusto Pinochet’s five children were ordered to be arrested on charges of tax evasion related to the former Chilean dictator’s overseas bank accounts. (AP)

Train Plunge

Bioce: A train derailed and plunged into a deep forest ravine outside Podgorica, the Montenegrin capital. At least ten lifeless bodies and dozens of injured passengers were pulled out by rescuers. (AP)

Medical fraud

Oslo: A Norwegian doctor admitted fabricating research data in The Lancet suggesting that aspirin could cure mouth cancer. Jon Sudboe, 44, said he also made up two papers published in the US. (AFP)

Closed-door trial

Kiev: Prosecutors have asked for the trial of three former Ukrainian police officers charged in the high-profile killing in 2000 of Hrihory Gongadze, a journalist, to be held behind closed doors.

Back in business

The Hague: The trial of Slobodan Milosevic, the ill former Serbian President, which began in 2002, restarted at the UN war crimes tribunal in the Netherlands after a six-week break. (AFP)