Natural gas leaked from a defective fitting at a Pennsylvania chocolate factory where a powerful explosion leveled one building, heavily damaged another and killed seven people, federal safety investigators said Tuesday as they continued to investigate the cause of the blast. One of two leaks at the R.M. Palmer Co. plant in West Reading was…

ANKARA, Turkey—An explosion at a rocket and explosives plant in Turkey caused a building to collapse on Saturday, killing all five workers inside, an official said. The explosion occurred at around 8:45 a.m. at the compound of the state-owned Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation, on the outskirts of the capital, Ankara, Gov. Vasip Sahin told…

WAYCROSS, Ga.—Finnish company Admares plans to invest $750 million to build a modular housing factory in the U.S. state of Georgia, hiring 1,400 people, officials announced Wednesday. The company plans to mass produce housing using heavily automated factories. Admares, which was founded in Turku, Finland, said it’s in the process of relocating its headquarters to…

BERLIN—A man opened fire at a Mercedes-Benz factory in southwestern Germany on Thursday, leaving two people dead, authorities and the company said. The shooting occurred in Sindelfingen, a city near Stuttgart. The suspect, a 53-year-old Turkish citizen, was taken into custody, the Stuttgart prosecutor’s office said. Police received the first emergency calls around 7:45 a.m….

BEIJING—China’s manufacturing activity shrank in April, official data showed on Sunday, raising pressure on policymakers seeking to boost an economy struggling for a post-COVID lift-off amid subdued global demand and persistent property weakness. The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) declined to 49.2 from 51.9 in March, according to data from the National Bureau of…

FRANKFORT, Ind.—A man charged with killing a former girlfriend and her grandmother outside an Indiana factory in 2021 has pleaded guilty in a deal that takes a possible death penalty off the table, authorities said. Gary Ferrell II, who was 26 years old at the time, was accused of fatally shooting Promise Mays, 21, and…

A Pennsylvania candy-maker ignored warnings of a gas leak at its chocolate factory and bears responsibility for a subsequent explosion that killed seven workers and injured several others, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday. The family of Judith “Judy” Lopez-Moran, a 55-year-old mother of three, filed what their lawyers called the first wrongful-death suit against…

A Pennsylvania candy-maker ignored warnings of a gas leak at its chocolate factory and bears responsibility for a subsequent explosion that killed seven workers and injured several others, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday. The family of Judith “Judy” Lopez-Moran, a 55-year-old mother of three, filed what their lawyers called the first wrongful-death suit against…

SHANGHAI—Tesla Inc. is opening a factory in Shanghai, capable of producing ten thousand Megapack energy product per year, to supplement output of Megapack factory in California, the company said in a tweet on Sunday. The news was first reported by the Chinese state media outlet Xinhua. Elon Musk’s automaker will break ground on the plant…

A woman pulled alive from the rubble of a Pennsylvania chocolate factory after an explosion that killed seven co-workers says flames had engulfed the building, and her arm, when the floor gave way beneath her. That might have been the end, if she hadn’t fallen into a vat of liquid chocolate. The dark liquid extinguished…