The time is 17:00 (UTC) on June 8th, 2006, and this is Audio Wikinews News Briefs.

Iraq
The head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been killed in an air strike north of Baqubah, according to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.
Several aides also died with him in the Wednesday evening raid, including his key lieutenant and spiritual adviser Sheik Abdul Rahman.

economy 
A barrel of oil got cheaper after news broke that Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been killed in a US airstrike. The death of al-Zarqawi seems to have been interpreted by the market as good news for the future supply of oil from the region.

Nigeria
Five South Korean workers have been kidnapped from a natural gas facility in the Nigerian Delta. The company is operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company.
A group called the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta is claiming responsibility for the attack and kidnappings and says that one kidnapper and at least six Nigerian soldiers were killed on a Nigerian military boat, when gunmen entered the facility. The group's main demand is the release of a jailed militia leader, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari.

New Zealand
Freelance journalist Tim Selwyn has been found guilty of sedition. This is the first conviction for sedition in New Zealand in over 75 years.
Selwyn faced two charges of "making a seditious statement" relating to pamphlets he had left near the scene of an axe attack on the Prime Minister's electorate office in November, 2004, which had called upon like-minded New Zealanders to "engage in similar acts of civil disobediance" and to "take similar action of their own".

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Wikinews:Briefs/June 8, 2006