Police will indict 10 former government, airline and airport officials, and seek sanctions for Airbus employees, in Brazil`s worst plane crash that killed 199 people in Sao Paulo in 2007, a top investigator said Wednesday.

VANCOUVER, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - Some 650 people attended the funeral Saturday of a Polish emigree who died at Vancouver airport after police stunned him with a Taser, a disturbing incident that was videotaped by a bystander and shown around the world.

'We were quite surprised. People came from everywhere,' said Kamloops Funeral Home employee Lawrence Schrader. The funeral home owner, Zofia Cisowski, also the mother of the 40-year-old victim, Robert Dziekanski, had planned for 100 mourners, he said.

VANCOUVER, Canada, Oct 20, 2007 (AFP) - Fire-fighters responding to a reported gas leak found at least six people dead, suspected murdered, in a high rise apartment in this western Canadian city, police said.

The victims were found by fire-fighters late Friday after an unidentified person entered the apartment, saw the bodies and called emergency officials, said police corporal Dale Carr.

The apartment, on the top floor of a 15-story apartment in Surrey, is 'a horrific crime scene,' Carr, a member of a special Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, told AFP.

SAO TOME, Oct 20, 2007 (AFP) - The elite 'Ninjas' police force in Sao Tome and Principe, which has occupied police headquarters in the country twice in the last two weeks, declared Saturday an end to their mutinies.

The force signed a deal with the government on Saturday after ending their protest on Friday.

'I announce the end of the crisis. The situation is returning to normal ... there are no more problems,' said a spokesman for the special forces, known as Ninjas, Wilson Quaresma.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland, Oct 20, 2007 (AFP) - Former Northern Ireland Assembly member Billy Hutchinson was arrested by police in Belfast on Saturday in connection with the murder of a schoolboy, his party's leader told AFP.

Hutchinson is the fourth person to be questioned in the past two days over the stabbing of 15-year-old Thomas Devlin, who was attacked when he was walking home with friends in north Belfast in August 2005.

'Billy was picked up this morning,' Dawn Purvis, leader of the loyalist Progressive Unionist Party, said.

VANCOUVER, Canada, Oct 20, 2007 (AFP) - Fire-fighters responding to a reported gas leak found at least six people dead, suspected murdered, Friday in a high rise apartment in this western Canadian city, police said.

'There are at least six deceased individuals, adults, inside an apartment on the 15th floor,' homicide investigator Dale Carr told AFP. He said police are treating the case in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey 'as a homicide scene.'

VANCOUVER, Canada, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - A Canadian schoolteacher accused of sexually abusing boys across Southeast Asia and arrested in Thailand Friday was a 'person of interest' for police in his native province of British Columbia, officials said.

'It appears that he was a person of interest since 2004,' Annie Linteau, a spokeswoman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), told AFP.

'We're certainly interested here, but we are unable to confirm or deny that there is an ongoing investigation,' Linteau added

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - Police killed 694 people during shootouts with gangs in the slums of Rio de Janeiro in the first half of this year, according to official figures released Friday.

The State Institute of Public Security said the figure marked a 33.5-percent increase compared to the same period of 2006.

In the deadliest incident, 19 people died on June 27 when 1,350 police officers raided a slum area known as Aleman Complex in the north of Rio.

MONTREAL, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - A Canadian schoolteacher accused of sexually abusing boys across Southeast Asia and arrested in Thailand Friday was also under investigation in his native province of British Colombia, local media reports said.

Federal authorities have received complaints from residents of the Vancouver area, saying they have been victims of sexual harassment on the part of Christopher Paul Neil, CBC television reported.

But the network said no formal charges had been filed against the man.

SALONIKA, GREECE, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - A Greek police officer was caught Friday trying to rob a bank cash depot in the northern port city of Salonika as his accomplices made off with an estimated three million euros (4.3 million dollars), local police sources said.

The officer, a traffic policeman in the neighbouring city of Verria, was assisted by two accomplices who managed to escape from the Alpha Bank cash centre.

'They were carrying two travel bags packed with money,' a local store employee told reporters.

SAO TOME, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - About 40 members of an elite police squad in Sao Tome and Principe on Friday ended a protest in which they have twice occupied national police headquarters.

Sao Tome police chief Gilberto Andrade, whom they briefly took hostage as part of the pay protest, resumed his job and the special forces known as Ninjas left the main police bulding.

LONDON, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - The officer in charge of an operation in which British police mistakenly killed an innocent Brazilian after mistaking him for a suicide bomber told a court Friday that she never gave an order to shoot him.

Jean Charles de Menezes died at a London Underground train station in July 2005, two weeks after four suicide bombers killed themselves and 52 others and the day after another attempted attack was foiled.

Police thought de Menezes was one of the plotters, Hussain Osman, who was jailed for life earlier this year.

BANGKOK, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - A Canadian schoolteacher accused of sexually abusing boys across Southeast Asia was arrested and paraded before the cameras in Thailand Friday, ending a global manhunt sparked by a decoded digital photo.

Christopher Paul Neil, 32, tried to hide under a blue shirt as he was led in handcuffs past dozens of waiting reporters and into Thailand's national police headquarters.

He later sat in silence for about five minutes alongside police, stonefaced and wearing dark sunglasses with a white T-shirt and black nylon running pants.

BANGKOK, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - Tip-offs received from across the globe gave police the breakthrough that led to Friday's arrest of a Canadian schoolteacher accused of sexually abusing boys in Southeast Asia, Interpol said.

Christopher Paul Neil, 32, was nabbed in Thailand's third-largest city Nakhon Ratchasima following an unprecedented appeal from international police organisation Interpol for public help in finding him.

'The fact that we went to the public was the breakthrough,' Interpol detective Mick Moran told AFP.

BANGKOK, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - A suspected Canadian paedophile who is the target of a global manhunt was arrested Friday in northeast Thailand, police said.

Christopher Paul Neil, 32, was captured a day after a Thai court issued a warrant for his arrest, in a search launched after police had successfully unswirled a digitally obscured photograph he had posted on the Internet.

He is accused by Interpol of sexually assaulting 12 boys and posting 200 pictures of the crimes on the Internet.

NEW YORK, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - A group representing New York City police officers challenged in court Thursday a new rule requiring that officers take sobriety tests after firing their service revolvers.

The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, which represents 24,000 officers, said the new rule was a 'violation of NYC police officer's right to be free of unreasonable government searches and seizures.'

LYON, France, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - International police agency Interpol on Thursday issued an wanted persons notice on for alleged Canadian paedophile Christopher Paul Neil.

A global hunt is ongoing for Neil, also known as 'Vico', a 32-year-old teacher accused of posting pictures online of himself raping boys in Cambodia and Vietnam.

The Interpol action came after a Thai court Thursday issued an arrest warrant for Neil, accusing him of sexually abusing a Thai boy who came forward after seeing a picture of the suspect in a newspaper.

LYON, France, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - The international police agency Interpol issued a wanted persons notice on Thursday for alleged Canadian paedophile Christopher Paul Neil, nicknamed 'Vico.'

A global hunt is ongoing for Neil, 32, accused of posting pictures online of himself raping boys in Cambodia and Vietnam.

The police agency, headquartered in southwest France, posted on its website a copy of his passport and a reproduction of his arrival card in Bangkok on October 11.

MONTREAL, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - A man suspected of drunk driving died in hospital overnight after police used a taser to subdue him, in Canada's second recent death plugged to the 50,000-volt stun guns, authorities said Thursday.

According to reports, Quilem Registre, 39, had been stopped Sunday for driving erratically, ramming his car into several vehicles, then became aggressive during questioning by police.

He was taken to hospital for an examination, and died later of heart and kidney failure.

VELSEN, The Netherlands, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - A treaty officially sanctioning the deployment of European troops to Bosnia later this year was signed by five contributing countries in the Netherlands on Thursday.

Some 140 para-military police from the European Gendarmerie Force (EGF) will be deployed to Sarajevo to support the police mission already there, according to a European military source.

BANGKOK, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - A suspected Canadian paedophile who is the target of a global manhunt may have sexually abused boys while he was trying to find a job teaching in Thailand, police said Thursday.

At least one 18-year-old boy has said that the suspect, 32-year-old Christopher Paul Neil, sexually abused him two years ago, police Colonel Apichart Suriboonya.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - Brazilian police said 12 people were killed, including an officer of the law and a four-year-old girl, during a crackdown Wednesday on drug traffickers in a slum of western Rio de Janeiro.

Three police officers were also wounded during the shootout that broke out when some 500 police officers backed by helicopters and armed vehicles tried to arrest a group of drug traffickers in the Coreira slum, police said.

Rio de Janeiro state health authorities said a four-year-old girl was killed by a stray bullet to the chest.

CAPE TOWN, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - South Africa's security minister backed the country's embattled police chief Jackie Selebi on Wednesday, saying there was no reason to suspend him pending a review of a warrant issued for his arrest.

'I asked him: 'Are you guilty of any crime?' and he has said: 'No, I'm not',' Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula told lawmakers.

'Nobody has brought me evidence to show that indeed he is guilty of any crime,' the minister said of Selebi, who also heads international policing agency Interpol.

VIENNA, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - The Austrian government agreed in principle Wednesday to a proposal to allow police to infiltrate the computer hard-disks of criminals and terror suspects, the first European country to do so.

'This is a heartening situation for the authorities,' Interior Minister Guenther Platter said, following a cabinet meeting where ministers agreed to the online-tracking proposal.

LONDON, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - Two men appeared in a British court Wednesday charged with conspiring to possess money 'for terrorist purposes' and other offences.

Adam Mohamed, 28, and Imad Shoubaki, 31, were arrested in Surrey, southern England, earlier this month and were allegedly found with more than one million pounds (1.4 million euros, two million dollars).

The pair, who appeared for a brief preliminary hearing at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court in central London, are charged under the Terrorism Act 2000.

LONDON, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - A British court heard a claim Wednesday that a composite photograph designed to show the problems police faced distinguishing an innocent Brazilian shot dead by officers from a would-be bomber was altered.

Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead at a London Underground train station in July 2005 when the capital was in a state of high tension two weeks after four suicide bombers killed themselves and 52 others on the transport network.

SAO TOME, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - About 40 armed members of an elite police squad in Sao Tome and Principe occupied the national police headquarters on Wednesday for the second time in a week.

They took no hostages this time, unlike last week when they kidnapped the Sao Tome Police chief Gilberto Andrade in a mutiny over a pay demand.

A spokesman for the Ninjas, as the special forces are known, said on state radio that they had moved in to protest about a statement from Andrade claiming that they regretted their mutiny last week.

SEOUL, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - South Korean police have launched a probe into a suspected Canadian pedophile wanted by Interpol and who worked in the Asian country teaching English, a spokesman said Wednesday.

The suspect, identified as Christopher Paul Neil, left for Thailand on October 11 after spending seven years in South Korea working at schools or private institutions, a National Police Agency spokesman told AFP.

'We have launched an investigation into the record of his activity here,' the spokesman said.

BANGKOK, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - Thai police were scouring the country Wednesday for a Canadian man accused of raping young boys and then posting pictures of the acts on the Internet.

Interpol has urged the suspect, 32-year-old Christopher Paul Neil, to give himself up after issuing an unprecedented global appeal for help in tracking him down.

'We have alerted all our divisions -- immigration police, tourist police, metropolitan police and local units are all looking for him because now he could be anywhere in Thailand,' said police Colonel Apichart Suriboonya.

LYON, France, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) - Interpol announced Monday it had identified a man it says posted pictures of himself raping young boys in Vietnam and Cambodia, a week after issuing an unprecedented appeal for help.

The suspect was identified as an English teacher at a South Korean school who is now believed to be in Thailand, the International Criminal Police Organization said in a statement, citing information provided by five sources from three continents.

The man apparently remains at large and Interpol appealed for public assistance to track him down.

VANCOUVER, Canada, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) - A man died on the weekend at Vancouver airport, Canada's main Pacific hub, following a scuffle with federal police, authorities said Monday.

Sergeant Pierre Lemaitre of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) told AFP they subdued a man in his late 30s or 40s with a taser and detained him for behaving wildly at about 1:30 a.m. Sunday (0830 GMT) in the arrivals area.

He died shortly afterwards.

THE HAGUE, Oct 15, 2007 (AFP) - A mentally unstable man shot dead by police in Amsterdam after he knifed two officers had ties to the extremist group involved in the murder of Dutch film-maker Theo Van Gogh, police said Monday.

Bilal B., a 22-year old Dutch citizen of Moroccan descent, was 'interviewed as a witness after the arrest of members connected with the 'Hofstadt Group' on October 14, 2005' officer Leo de Wit told a press conference.

MADRID, Oct 14, 2007 (AFP) - Spain will host the latest six-monthly meeting between French and Spanish police chiefs, with the fight against the armed Basque separatist organisation ETA high on the agenda, Spanish police announced Sunday.

Joan Mesquida, head of Spain's police and civil guard, will meet with Frederic Pechenard, the head of France's national police service, on Tuesday.

JOHANNESBURG, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - South Africa's national prosecuting authority (NPA) appointed a four-strong panel of independent legal experts Friday to examine a decision on whether to prosecute police chief Jackie Selebi.

The panel was given a month-long remit to determine whether the NPA should pursue an investigation into Selebi who was the target of an arrest warrant obtained by prosecutors last month but which has since been cancelled.

SARAJEVO, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - The top international envoy to Bosnia said on Thursday the country's leaders failed again to agree on key police reforms, which would delay signing of an association deal with the European Union.

'We do not have an agreement' on police reforms, the international community's High Representative, Miroslav Lajcak, said after meeting Bosnian leaders.

'We do not have hope and we do not have a chance for this country to move toward Europe,' the Slovak diplomat said.

SAO TOME, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - A police special forces unit in Sao Tome and Principe on Thursday ended a mutiny and handed back weapons they had taken out of the armoury at the small African island nation's police headquarters.

Junior Kaiser, a spokesman for the elite forces known as Ninjas, said that Sao Tome police chief Gilberto Andrade 'is right now back in his office' after they took him and about 10 other fellow policemen hostage early this week.

CAPE TOWN, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - The South African government backed President Thabo Mbeki Thursday in suspending the country's top prosecutor while failing to act against allegedly crooked police chief Jackie Selebi.

Conceding it was losing the public perception battle on this issue, the government nevertheless declined to be drawn on the widely held belief that prosecutions head Vusi Pikoli was sidelined for issuing an arrest warrant for Selebi, who also presides over the international police body Interpol.