London - A London taxi driver who drugged and sexually assaulted at least a dozen of his female passengers was Tuesday given an indefinite jail sentence but will have to serve at least eight years.

Croydon Crown Court sentenced John Worboys, 51, after convicting him of one rape, five sexual assaults, one attempted assault and
12 drugging charges committed in the London area between July, 2007 and February, 2008.

Nairobi - At least 24 people have been killed in clashes between members of the public and the banned Mungiki sect in Central Kenya, police said Tuesday.

Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe told the German Press Agency dpa that fighting broke out on Monday evening in and around the town of Karatina, around 100 kilometres north of the capital Nairobi.

The police arrested 34 people on Tuesday night then discovered the bodies early Tuesday morning, Kiraithe said.

It was not clear how many of the dead were members of the banned sect and how many were members of the public.

Bangkok  - Thai police have arrested a suspected thief who left his toes at the scene of the crime, media reports said Tuesday.

Atthapol Maenkrathok, 42, was arrested over the weekend at a hospital in Uttaradit province where he was being treated for a severed foot.

Police said Atthapol was charged with robbing a woman of her cash and a 1,000-dollar gold necklace on the overnight train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok on April 7, the Bangkok Post reported.

Dhaka  - Bangladesh is planning stringent measures to fight cyber crimes amid the rapid expansion of information and communication technology and telecommunications networks in the impoverished South Asian country, an official said Monday.

"We have taken steps afresh to facilitate fair and secured use of the information technology as the country lacks a complete law to deal with cyber crimes," MM Neazuddin, a joint secretary to the science and ICT ministry, told the German Press Agency dpa.

Manila  - Five suspected kidnappers were killed in a shootout when police raided their hideout to rescue a 23-year-old victim in a northern Philippine city, police said Monday.

The hostage was unharmed in the firefight on Sunday evening in Urdaneta City in Pangasinan province, 165 kilometres north of Manila, Superintendent Wilson Lopez said.

Lopez, operations chief of the provincial police, said commandos swooped down the suspects' safe house after receiving information that the hostage was being held there.

Kuala Lumpur  - Malaysian police detained eight Indonesian men and seized 23,300 packets of cigarettes following a high-speed sea chase in waters off the northern Johor state, a news report said Monday.

Marine police fired at the engine of a boat they believed to be carrying smugglers in Saturday's pre-dawn incident, marine police assistant commander Mohamad Khamsani Abdul Rahman said.

During the pursuit, one of the suspects was injured. He was later sent to a nearby hospital for treatment, Mohamad Khamsani was quoted as saying by the Star daily.