China factory blast kills 5, injures 3

BEIJING • Five workers were killed and three injured in a factory explosion caused by a gas leak in eastern China, the authorities have said.

The blast happened last Friday night at a perlite workshop in Shandong province, city officials said in a statement yesterday. All five victims were night-shift workers at the Qingzhou city factory.

The incident came barely a week after an explosion at a chemical plant in Yancheng in the eastern province of Jiangsu killed 78 people and injured hundreds.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Myanmar seizes record meth haul

YANGON • The Myanmar authorities seized over 1,700kg of crystal meth worth nearly US$29 million (S$39 million) in a multi-state operation last week, the biggest haul so far this year in a country widely said to be the world's largest methamphetamine producer.

High-grade crystal meth is smuggled out of Myanmar via sophisticated networks to lucrative markets as far away as Japan, South Korea and Australia.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Band's killer was driving wrong way

LOS ANGELES • A driver who killed the British-based pop duo Her's in a head-on crash was travelling the wrong way on a highway, US police said in a statement yesterday.

Arizona's Department of Public Safety confirmed the deaths of Stephen Fitzpatrick, 24, and Audun Laading, 25, as well as the other person in the van, Mr Trevor Engelbrektson, 37, of Minneapolis.

He was their tour manager and driver.

Her's label Heist or Hit earlier said the band was travelling to Santa Ana, California, for the final gig of its US tour when the crash occurred last Wednesday.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE