Taiwan's leader on Friday called for calm and promised to protect Filipinos on the island amid widespread anger at the Philippines over the killing of a Taiwanese fisherman. Anti-Manila sentiments mounted after a 65-year-old fisherman was shot dead last week by Philippine coastguards who said his vessel intruded into Philippine waters. Taiwanese media have reported an attack on a Filipino, tourists cancelling planned visits to the Philippines and some supermarkets removing food from the Philippines from their shelves.

Brazilian police have uncovered a trafficking network involving Bangladeshis who were smuggled into the South American country with promises of good wages but ended up doing slave labor. About 80 Bangladeshis working in slavery-like conditions were discovered in eight homes on the outskirts of the Brazilian capital, Police Commissioner Dennis Cali said Thursday, according to state news agency Agencia Brasil. No arrests have been made but four suspected Bangladeshi smugglers have been identified, he said.

Mexico City, May 17 (EFE).- State-owned Petroleos Mexicanos admits that "serious" corruption exists in some areas of the company and that contracting processes in particular have been plagued by "interference from organized crime," a leading Mexican daily said Friday. In a front-page story, El Universal said Pemex representatives and members of the Mexican Construction Industry Chamber drew that conclusion at a meeting in late April.

New Delhi, May 17 (EFE).- The death toll in Bangladesh from Cyclone Mahasen rose to 42 on Friday with the discovery of the bodies of nine children who had been passengers on a boat, the press said. This brought the number of fatalities on the trawler that went down in the Bay of Bengal to 31, including 24 children, according to The Daily Star. The bodies were found on the coast of Teknaf, a southeastern district of Cox's Bazar.