Taipei  - Taiwan police have arrested a funeral parlour worker who stole cash and jewelry from a dead American, a newspaper said Tuesday.

Chen Chien-feng was arrested Monday for stealing 3,700 Taiwan dollars (100 US dollars) and jewelry from the home of Sandy Richard Puckett, a 60-year-old teacher at the Taipei American School, while removing Puckett's body Monday morning, the China Times said.

Paris  - A large gang of youths armed with buckshot and stones left a number of police officers lightly injured overnight in a Parisian suburb, a police spokesman said Sunday.

About 100 young people were involved in the violence, the spokesman told French radio, adding that eight were arrested.

The number of policemen hurt were originally reported as 21, but later reduced to 10.

According to early reports, the rioting began when police responding to a call concerning a burning car were "ambushed" by an waiting band of youths in the Les Mureaux suburb. A number of homemade incendiary devices were also discovered at the scene.

Johannesburg  - The wife of South Africa's newly appointed Intelligence Minister Siyabonga Cwele is being investigated for international drug trafficking following the arrest of an alleged South African drug mule in Brazil, a Johannesburg-based newspaper reported Sunday.

The Sunday Times newspaper said Sheryl Cwele has been linked directly to the unemployed 31-year-old mother who was arrested in Sao Paulo in June 13, 2008 when a
9-kilo block of raw cocaine was found in her suitcase while en route to Johannesburg.

She is being held in Brazil's Penitenciaria Feminina Da Capital prison, awaiting charges.

Kathmandu  - Nepal police arrested a Frenchman wanted internationally on paedophile charges, media reports said Sunday.

Jean Jacques Haye, 60, was arrested in the north-eastern outskirts of Kathmandu on a tip from an organization working for children, the Himalayan Times newspaper quoted police as saying.

French authorities were seeking Haye on charges of sexually abusing of children, and an Interpol warrant was issued.

New Delhi  - A software engineer has been arrested in the southern Indian city of Chennai on charges of killing his baby daughter by throwing her into a well, news reports said Saturday.

S Niranjankumar allegedly committed the crime beacuse his wife had refused to abort the child, NDTV television channel reported.

Niranjankumar, 29, and Sangeetha, 22, were married a year ago and were based in India's information technology hub Bangalore.

Bangkok  - Police killed an accused associate of a fugitive Thai Muslim drug lord after an all-night gunbattle in central Thailand, news reports said Saturday.

Four police officers were injured in the attempt to apprehend Bares Meesri in his rented home in Pathum Thani province just north of Bangkok.

When officers were finally able to enter the house Saturday morning, they found guns and heavy weapons next to the body of the accused drug trafficker, the Bangkok Post reported, adding that 100 officers were involved in the operation.