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Mexico City  - A defective electric motor in a ventilator likely caused the fire at a day care centre that killed 44 children in Mexico City, an initial investigation showed Monday.

The motor in a garage next door to the day care in the city of Hermosillo likely overheated or short circuited, said Abel Murrieta Gutierrez, head of Sonora state's justice department. The fire, which occurred Friday, then spread quickly and overtook the ABC day care centre.

Taipei  - A Taiwan teacher, who applied for a funeral subsidy for his mother before she died, has been sentenced to seven years and two months in prison on embezzlement charges, a newspaper said Tuesday.

Lin Min-shun, a teacher at the Sanhsian Primary School in Taipei County, applied for a funeral subsidy for his mother on June 17, 1998, saying his mother was dying, when she was actually critical ill, the Liberty Times reported.

Sydney  - A revenge attack Monday by ethnic Indians outraged at perceived police inaction over a string of racially motivated assaults on their community escalated inter-communal tensions in Australia.

After Indian students were assaulted by ethnic Lebanese in a Sydney suburb around 200 people took to the streets to demand greater police protection.

During a rally that lasted into the early hours of the morning, three Lebanese were assaulted, sparking fears of tit-for-tat attacks.

Wellington  - New Zealand researchers have developed a mouth swab test to predict smokers' risk of getting lung cancer, news reports said on Tuesday.

Associate Professor Robert Young, of Auckland University, said the test combined clinical risk factors, including age, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and family history of lung cancer, with DNA obtained through mouth swabs.

He said all smokers faced an increased risk of developing lung cancer but the risk was much greater for some than others.

Wellington  - Michael James McGrath, 51, died after being gagged with duct tape because he was being "foul-mouthed and disrespectful" during a drinking session with flatmates, New Zealand police said Tuesday.

They said McGrath, a sickness beneficiary who was an alcoholic, was found dead at a house in Motueka, near Nelson, in the South Island, on Sunday evening.

Police said he apparently allowed a flatmate to gag him as a joke but they were considering whether to lay criminal charges.

Washington  - The Pentagon investigation into a US airstrike in Afghanistan last month that killed civilians has concluded there were "problems" with how the attack was carried out, a spokesman said Monday.

US Central Command is expected to soon release the report of the May 4 incident in Afghanistan's Farah province. The Afghan government said the strikes left at least 100 civilians dead - a number Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell didn't dispute.