Sydney  - A Thai man who had overstayed his visa made a big mistake when he drove his car at 137 kilometres an hour in a Sydney restricted zone shortly after midnight Saturday, police said.

Sana'a, Yemen - Yemeni tribesmen seeking the release of a jailed fellow clansman kidnapped a South African tourist and her two sons in the southern province of Abyan, police officials said Saturday.

The woman, the boys aged 10 and 13, as well as a Yemeni driver were kidnapped late Friday as they drove on a highway from the south-eastern province of Hadhramout to the port city of Aden, the officials said.

Armed tribesmen from the al-Maraqisha tribe stopped the South African family's vehicle near the al-Khubar town, 170 kilometres east of Aden.

They forced the driver to switch to an unpaved road leading to a mountainous area, around 30 kilometres from the highway, one police official told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Manila - A member of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's cabinet was in hot water on Monday after a businessman accused him and his two sons of beating him and his teenage son in a brawl at a golf course.

Arroyo ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate the accusations of businessman Delfin Dela Paz against Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman.

Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said Arroyo also directed the DOJ to file appropriate charges "against those responsible for any violation of law."

Washington - The number of murders committed in the US by black teenagers increased 34 per cent between 2000 and 2007, while those committed by whites had barely changed, a report to be released Monday by Northeastern University in Boston said.

In 2000, 539 white and 851 black youths between age 14 to 17 committed murder, according to a story about the report in the New York Times. By 2007, the number of murders by blacks had risen to 1,142 while those committed by whites had fallen slightly, to 537.

Manila - Two boys were killed while playing with a hand grenade in their house in a northern Philippine province, a police report said Monday.

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian police have detained a Singaporean man and his wife, a Thai national, after his young stepson was found dead in his home with bruises on the body, hands, legs and head, a news report said Monday.

The victim, an 8-year old boy, was believed to have been abused before he died, said deputy district police chief Mohamad Akhir Ishak.

Neighbours called police Saturday afternoon after they heard a commotion in the boy's home in the southern Johor state, the Star daily reported.