'Experiment' at home leaves billionaire dead

SHANGHAI: The chairman of a major pharmaceutical company and his employee died in an explosion caused by a "chemical experiment gone wrong" at the businessman's residential villa in Taizhou, Zhejiang province, last Friday, local police said yesterday.

Police said preliminary investigations indicate that the chairman of Taizhou Nova Medicine Chemistry Co., surnamed Zhang, along with one of his employees, was conducting an experiment on the fourth floor of his villa in the city's Huangyan district when the explosion occurred.

Both men died on the spot.