Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Mount Everest, has died at the age of 88.

The New Zealander reached the summit of the Himalayan mountain on May 29 in 1953 alongside the Tibetan-born Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.

The prime minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark, paid tribute to the explorer.

“The legendary mountaineer, adventurer, and philanthropist is the best-known New Zealander ever to have lived,” Clark said. “But most of all he was a quintessential Kiwi.”

More to follow …

BEIJING: China and the United States are working together to investigate the blood-thinner heparin, which has been linked to 19 American deaths, the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration said Sunday.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been widening its investigation into the hundreds of adverse reactions linked to Baxter Internationals heparin injections. The reactions include difficulty breathing, nausea and falling blood pressure.

Heparin is derived from pig intestines, and China is the worlds leading supplier.

U.S. and Chinese officials have been investigating heparin samples but have reached no conclusions, said Wu Zhen, the deputy commissioner of State Food and Drug Administration.

“Chinas State Food and Drug Administration and Americas FDA are working closely together on the heparin investigation,” Wu said at a news conference, “and American investigators came to China to investigate and we supported them. The most important thing now is that the scientists of both sides launch an in-depth investigation into the details. We cant take effective measures until we find the cause.”

The U.S. agency found a contaminant in 20 of 28 samples of raw heparin from Baxters main supplier, Scientific Protein Laboratories of the United States, which gets the bulk of its heparin from a joint venture in Jiangsu Province.

Scientists have not yet fully identified the contaminant, but it mimics heparin so closely that standard drug-purity tests will not catch it. Nor is it certain that the contaminant is to blame for the allergic reactions, although it is the prime suspect.

Wu said it was still unclear at what stage the heparin had been contaminated because the production process was long and complicated. He said Scientific Protein Laboratories had its raw material from the Chinese company Kaipu Biochemical, also known as Changzhou SPL. Wu said the heparin could have been contaminated after production or when the drug was exported overseas.

A different brand of heparin has also been recalled in Germany after 80 patients there became sick, and the German manufacturer said it was narrowing the possible source of contamination to another Chinese supplier.

Changzhous mayer, Wang Weicheng, said Friday that the city government had cooperated with the investigation and was seriously monitoring the companies in the city. He said it was the first time a problem had been reported. The city shut down 800 chemical companies last year for violating environmental standards, he said.

Siemens, the biggest engineering company in Europe, said Monday that earnings this quarter would be about \900 million lower that expected because of order delays and cancellations at the energy, transportation and technology units.

Shares of Siemens, which is based in Munich, fell as much as 13 percent in Frankfurt trading, the biggest drop in at least 18 years. The energy division will have the largest charge, which Siemens estimated at about \600 million, or $935 million. About \200 million will come from the transportation unit, while the technology division will have costs of about \100 million.

The revised earnings estimate comes a month after the chief executive, Peter Lцscher, said the company was expected to meet its earnings goals this year. Lцscher, the first outsider to lead Siemens in its 160-year history, said the move was a “painful but necessary step” as he overhauled the company after his predecessor, Klaus Kleinfeld, left over a bribery scandal last year.

Jochen Klusmann, an analyst at BHF Bank in Frankfurt, said he expected that “there will be a credibility problem arising from this.”

Siemens shares fell as much as \10.59 to \71.19, cutting Siemenss market value by about \9.7 billion. The decline brings the drop in shares this year to 36 percent, making Siemens one of the worst performers in Germanys benchmark index.

Lцscher said in November that changing Siemens would be a “tough” task that would take years to accomplish and that there would be “some disappointing quarters along the way.”

The charges in the three months through March are expected to make up the bulk of financial burdens this year, Siemens said.

“Were coming to terms with our past,” Lцscher said during a conference call Monday. “Weve mercilessly uncovered the issues.” Lцscher has already switched management at the energy and transportation units and cut technology jobs.

The company reiterated its profit targets for 2010 and said it would make “definitive progress” toward these goals next year. The company expects to increase sales at least twice as fast as global economic growth this year, and profit from operations are expected to rise at least twice as fast as revenue. Siemenss fiscal year ends in September.

Siemens, which makes products like light bulbs and wind turbines, was projected to report net income of \1.15 billion for the three months ending March 31, according analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Siemens said it reviewed fossil-power generation, transportation and technology projects. Power-plant projects since 2004 hurt earnings at the division because of supply “challenges” and recruitment delays for workers. Some 40 percent of its energy engineers have three years or less of experience, Siemens said.

The transportation unit was also hurt by delays on a Chinese magnetic-levitation train as well as by costs to fix Combino trams, which are used in cities like Amsterdam and Melbourne. The Combino trams, which have shown cracks in their bodies, have burdened Siemens since 2004. The transportation unit head, Hans Schabert, has been removed from his job.

The information-technology unit was hurt by project risks in Britain, including the cancellation of an order in March, Siemens said. The order had a volume of about \85 million and was canceled after Siemens learned that it could not complete the work on time.