Johannesburg  - An armed gang walked into a church north of Johannesburg during a service and shot a man in the face, South African police said Thursday.

The South African Press Association quoted the police as saying that nine armed attackers - eight men and a woman - entered an evangelical church in the Randburg district during Wednesday evening service and robbed the worshippers of mobile phones and cash.

They then took the caretaker to his room and shot him in the face after stealing his DVD and mobile phone, police said.

Hong Kong  - A bullet and a warning letter aimed at the Hong Kong pop star at the centre of a sex photos scandal has been sent in the post from the United States to a local TV station, police said Thursday.

The letter, written in English, warned singer-actor Edison Chen to disappear from public life and said it was a final warning to him to take his personal safety seriously.

Chen, 28, was embroiled in a scandal last year when photographs of him romping naked with a number of young starlets were circulated over the internet.

Vienna  - A United Nations meeting to discuss policies for tackling the global drug problem in the coming decade began Wednesday in Vienna against the backdrop of limited progress over the last 10 yeras.

The high-level meeting of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs is set to adopt an action plan Thursday that calls on countries to find a better balance between measures to curb supply and demand, for example by strengthening health care services.

Berlin  - A firebomb erupted beneath the car of a high- ranking employee involved with the expansion of Frankfurt's airport Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, police announced Wednesday.

Two fire accelerants were found under the company car, which reportedly belongs to the Fraport project manager in charge of the airport's enlargement programme, the police said.

Investigators say there may be a political motive behind the attack, in light of previous opposition to the airport development, managed by Fraport.

Hanoi  - Police in central Vietnam have arrested three men for killing five rare langurs, a forest warden said Wednesday.

The men were arrested Monday in the Hon Ba Nature Reservation in the central province of Khanh Hoa. Forest wardens said they found the men, armed with hunting guns, carrying five dead black-shanked Douc langurs out of the forest.

Phan Huy Thang, head of Khanh Hoa province's Forest Warden Department, said the men had been turned over to district police for prosecution.

Wellington  - Michael Swann, 47, was sentenced Wednesday to nine years and six months in prison for New Zealand's biggest-ever fraud by a worker on his employer, news reports said.

Swann was found guilty in December in the Dunedin High Court of embezzling 17 million New Zealand dollars (8.5 million US dollars) over six years while working as chief information officer of the Otago District Health Board.