21 dead, 1 missing in Chinese coal mine fire

SHANGHAI • A state-owned coal mine run by the Heilongjiang Longmay Mining Holding Group caught fire last Friday in north-east China's Heilongjiang province, leaving 21 workers dead and one missing.

BLOOMBERG

China pledges $21m to help find MH370

SHANGHAI • China yesterday pledged A$20 million (S$21 million) to help fund the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, the government said in a statement, after the plane vanished last year.

Australia is leading the difficult search in the southern Indian Ocean for the plane which mysteriously diverted off course on March 8 last year and disappeared with 239 people on board - the majority Malaysians and Chinese.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Seven die in NZ helicopter crash

WELLINGTON • Two Australian and four British tourists, along with their pilot, were killed when their helicopter crashed into a heavily crevassed glacier in New Zealand during bad weather yesterday, police said.

The sightseeing helicopter plunged into Fox Glacier, a popular tourist site on the west coast of South Island, with weather conditions reported to be heavily overcast and raining at the time.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE