in brief

FATAL COLLISION

Three children killed in California wreck

Three children were killed, and their mother was seriously injured, when a man driving a pickup ran a stop sign and slammed into their SUV, authorities in California, said.

The children, ages 2, 3 and 5, were riding in the back seat of the Ford Expedition and wearing safety restraints when Joseph Armstrong, 27, of Exeter, failed to stop at a posted stop sign Saturday afternoon at an intersection near Ivanhoe in Tulare County and hit their vehicle, California Highway Patrol officer J.R. Leeth Jr. said.

The crash sent Armstrong's Chevy truck and the SUV driven by Tonya Rader, 26, of Visalia, spun into a nearby orange grove.

WEEKEND HOMICIDES

Killings double number of city's slayings

The number of killings in Berkeley, Calif., this year doubled over the weekend after two people were slain in unrelated slayings hours apart, police said.

Berkeley paramedics responding early Saturday to a call that a man in his 30s had fallen outside his house found him dead on the sidewalk with injuries that suggested his death was a homicide, Berkeley police Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said.

The second victim was killed in a drive-by shooting Saturday afternoon while standing in a group on a South Berkeley street corner.

Berkeley, home of the University of California's flagship campus, also has seen a spike in robberies close to the school over the past month compared with previous years, police said.

INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT

Father finds teen dead in acid vat at factory

A Redwood City, Calif., father discovered his son dead in a vat of sulfuric acid Sunday at a circuit board factory where the two men worked after the 18-year-old was overcome by fumes and fell in, police said.

The San Mateo County coroner's office identified the victim as Fernando Jimenez Gonzalez, 18, of Redwood City. Gonzalez was submerging circuit boards in the vat at Coastal Circuits when the accident happened, Redwood City police said.

Gonzalez's father went to the factory when his son did not come home from his shift and discovered the body at about 1:45 a.m.

ALASKA COUPLE

Husband killed, wife injured in plane crash

A man killed and a woman who was severely injured in a plane crash near Prince William Sound were an Anchorage couple, Alaska state troopers said Sunday.

Howard Holtan, the 61-year-old pilot, died in the crash Saturday afternoon near Lake Shrode. His wife Roberta Carney, 47, was taken to Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage.

The couple had been flying from lake to lake on a day excursion, trooper Sgt. Bryan Barlow said.

Hikers saw the plane go down shortly after takeoff, and they radioed a nearby boat, the Alaska Air National Guard said.