Islamabad - Gunmen on Wednesday opened fire on a police vehicle in Pakistan's insurgency-hit Balochistan province, killing four law enforcers, including a senior officer, police said.

The attackers, riding a motorcycle, sprayed the pick-up truck with bullets on a main artery of Quetta, the provincial capital, when two officers along with three constables were moving towards a training school.

"Four policemen, including a deputy superintendent of police (DSP), were killed," a junior official, Mohammad Ali, said over the phone. The other DSP was critically injured, with a bullet wound in his head, Ali added.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Zamboanga City, Philippines - One prisoner was killed while 12 inmates, including a suspected Muslim militant, escaped in a jailbreak in the southern Philippines, police said.

The prisoners dug a tunnel out of their cell at the Sulu provincial jail in Patikul town on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila. They escaped before dawn on Tuesday.

Senior Superintendent Julasirim Kasim, provincial police director, said the inmates dug the tunnel with the help of residents living near the jail.

Kasim said one of the inmates was killed when jail guards shot at him as he went into the tunnel.

"A wide-scale manhunt operation is on to track down and recapture the remaining inmates," he said.

Taipei - A Chinese monk visiting Taiwan with a Chinese Buddhist delegation has committed suicide after killing another member of the delegation, police said Wednesday.

The murder took place at the Forte Hotel in Hsinchu, western Taiwan, where the six-member delegation was staying, a duty officer from the Hsinchu Police Bureau told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The delegation from the Ling Gu Temple in Nanjing, eastern China, arrived in Taiwan Monday for a six-day visit at the invitation of the Chuan Chuang Culture and Education Foundation.

They checked into the Forte Hotel Tuesday.

Lisbon - Gerry McCann, the father of missing British toddler Madeleine, has returned to Portugal one-and-a-half years after her disappearance to continue the search for his daughter.

McCann, 40, told Portuguese journalists late Tuesday he returned to speak to his legal team and to develop new strategies to rekindle the search for Madeleine.

He said that he hoped to find his daughter until her birthday in May. McCann came to Portugal for the first time since returning to Britain in September 2007.

Manila - Somali pirates have released a Japanese-operated cargo ship with 21 Filipino crewmen aboard, a Philippine foreign official said Tuesday.

It might be very surprising to know but on Saturday, from a ration shop at Gelda Nagar in Ghatkopar (West), Ghatkopar Police arrested two persons and seized fake soaps bearing well-known brands worth Rs 62.60 lakh.

The Police reported, "The goods seized include brands Lux, Santoor and Lifebuoy besides over 1.4 lakh wrappers and soaps."

The Police arrested Shivprasad Gupta (20) and Surendra Kumar Singh (43), while the mastermind is at large. The arrested men, who have remanded in police custody till
12th January, have been booked under the copyright and trademark laws.