Six workers killed in crane collision

SEOUL • At least six Samsung workers building a US$500 million (S$697 million) ocean platform for French energy giant Total were killed in a shipyard crane accident, the South Korean authorities said yesterday.

Two cranes collided at the shipyard in the port of Geoje, causing a 60m, 32 tonne crane section to break and crash onto a workers' rest area below. At least 25 other people were injured.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Rare albino orangutan saved from captivity

PALANGKARAYA • A rare albino orangutan has been rescued on the Indonesian part of Borneo island where villagers were keeping the white-haired, blue-eyed creature in a cage.

The authorities picked up the female, estimated to be five years old, in a remote village in Kapuas Hulu district. The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, which is caring for the ape, yesterday said it had never before in its 25-year history taken in such an orangutan.

Normal Bornean orangutans have reddish-brown hair. They are classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as "critically endangered".

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Four arrested with meth pills in Myanmar

YANGON • Two military officers and two other men have been arrested in Myanmar's restive Rakhine state with hundreds of thousands of meth tablets in their car, police sources said yesterday.

Experts say growing demand for methamphetamines in neighbouring Bangladesh is driving a surge in drug trafficking.

A local border guard police officer estimated the pills had a street value of 880 million kyat (S$912,000).

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE