Paris - French bank Societe Generale said Monday it had suffered only "negligible" losses in the 50-billion-dollar securities fraud allegedly engineered by a leading Wall Street broker.

In a statement the bank said its exposure to Madoff Investment Securities LLC, and the so-called Ponzi scheme run by its head, Bernard L Madoff, was "below 10 million euros" (13.46 million dollars).

Manila - Three drug suspects were killed in a shootout with police officers in a southern Philippine town, a police report said Saturday.

Jakarta - An 30-year-old Indonesia man allegedly doused his girlfriend in petrol and burned her to death in a fit of jealousy, a media report said Saturday.

Hong Kong - A woman police detective was under investigation Thursday after leaving bullets for her service revolver on the back seat of a taxi in Hong Kong.

Twelve rounds of ammunition and a speed-loader used to carry extra rounds of bullets were handed in at the city's Mongkok police station by a taxi driver who found them in the back of his cab.

The detective was unwell at the time she caught the taxi and was still sick before she got out, leaving the ammunition and speed-loader behind, the government-run RTHK radio station said.

A police spokesman said disciplinary action would be taken against the detective if she was found to have breached guidelines relating to the issuing of firearms.

Nairobi - The world's long-term neglect of conflict-stricken Somalia has created the current boom in piracy in the Gulf of Aden, diplomats and UN officials said Wednesday as the second day of an international conference on piracy began in Nairobi.

"The Somali leadership ... and the international community have neglected Somalia," UN Special Representative for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah said. "Piracy is one of the most important consequences of this neglect."

Over 140 delegates from 45 countries - including ambassadors, ministers and technical experts - have gathered in the Kenyan capital to look at how to increase cooperation in fighting Somali pirates, in particular the thorny legal aspects of the issue.

Hong Kong - An animal-obsessed Hong Kong teenager was Thursday beginning a life jail sentence for murdering a female kennel worker he believed was mistreating dogs.