38 hurt in blast at Russian plant

MOSCOW • At least 38 people were injured in a blast at a major explosives plant in central Russia yesterday, local news agencies reported. The blast took place at the Kristall factory in Dzerzhinsk, about 400km east of Moscow.

Earlier reports said 19 people were injured in the accident and two were missing.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

'American Gangster' Lucas dies at 88

NEW YORK • Former American drug kingpin Frank Lucas, whose criminal exploits were profiled in the film American Gangster, has died at the age of 88 of natural causes, his nephew said on Friday.

Raised in North Carolina, Lucas became one of New York's biggest heroin dealers between the late 1960s and 1975, claiming that he imported the drug from South-east Asia in the coffins of American soldiers who died in the Vietnam War.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

US readies antitrust probe of Google

WASHINGTON • The US Department of Justice has taken early steps towards opening a federal antitrust investigation into Google, according to sources, marking a new chapter in the tech giant's war with regulators around the world.

The move thrusts Google back under the regulatory microscope in the US, roughly six years after another federal agency probed the firm on grounds that its business practices threatened competitors.

WASHINGTON POST