Kuala Lumpur  - Malaysian police killed five armed Vietnamese nationals, believed to be robbers, in a Saturday shootout, a news report said.

The five were among eight men suspected of having robbed 11 Vietnamese workers at a hostel in the northern state of Kedah and were making their getaway to the neighbouring state of Penang in two cars.

Acting on a tip-off, police managed to stop one of the cars, resulting in a shootout, Penang police chief Wira Ayub Yaakob said.

Manila  - Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered an investigation into the killing of the daughter of a senior communist rebel leader, an official said Saturday.

Arroyo wanted the killers of Rebelyn Pitao, 20, to be immediately brought to justice, Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said.

Pitao was a daughter of Leoncio Pitao, also known as Commander Parago, of the New People's Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Hamburg/Berlin  - A court in Hamburg late Friday issued arrest warrants for the nine pirates captured earlier this week by the German Navy off the coast of Somalia.

The state's attorney requested the arrests based on charges of an attack on traffic on the high seas, justice spokesman Wilhelm Moellers told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The German government had been seeking the transfer of the suspects to Kenya, a move that was sealed Friday morning in an agreement with the European Union.

Bangkok  - An ancient bead featuring the Hindu sun god Surya Dev was stolen while on display at Thailand's National Discovery Museum Institute, media reports said Saturday.

The stone bead, estimated to be 2,000 years old, was stolen Thursday from the Bangkok museum, where it had been on display since December 19.

Mexico City  - The dreaded Los Aztecas gang demonstrated this week that it can operate with impunity and kill at will, even within prison walls.

The gang was responsible for the deaths of 20 inmates in a prison in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, a city that has become a bloody battleground for powerful drug cartels that fight each other and the authorities.

Geneva  - Two parents and their two teenage children were found Friday shot dead in an apartment in Geneva. Police said they were carrying out an investigation.