Briefly

JAPAN

Five die in fire at rice cracker factory

Five people have died in a blaze at a rice cracker factory owned by Sanko Seika in Japan, police said on Saturday, with firefighters working through the night to extinguish the inferno. Around 30 workers were on site when the fire broke out at the facility in northern Niigata Prefecture around midnight, local media reported. The cause of the fire is unclear. NHK reported officers were working to identify the body as one of the two missing male workers, with another hospitalized but conscious after inhaling smoke.

Body of missing F-15 crewman found

Japan's airforce said Sunday that it had recovered the body of one of two crewmen of a fighter jet that went missing two weeks ago. The F-15 fighter jet was on a training mission on Jan 31 when it disappeared from radar shortly after taking off from Komatsu airbase in the Ishikawa region, sparking a search for its missing crew. The airforce said a body was found on Friday in the Sea of Japan (called the East Sea by South Korea). The cause of the crash is still unclear.

UNITED STATES

Two die, nine police hurt in shooting

A man ambushed a police officer who responded to a call at a home on Friday, shooting him several times, then rained more gunfire on other officers who tried to rescue a baby that was placed outside the door. Nine police officers were injured and two people, including a woman and the suspect, died during the incident in Phoenix, Arizona, authorities said. Police said the woman was the suspect's former girlfriend and that the baby was believed to be their child.

Agencies via Xinhua