The AP quickly deployed an all-formats team that dominated the story by providing voices and color from Vang Vieng, Laos, ahead of competitors.   AP’s

Eight staff members of a backpacker hostel in Laos have been detained by local authorities as they investigate the deaths of six foreign tourists from suspected methanol poisoning, according to state-affiliated media in the Southeast Asian country.

The development comes as the mother of British tourist Simone White, one of the six tourists killed, speaks out for the first time.

A small factory outside the capital of Laos has been identified as the suspected source of a methanol poisoning event which resulted in the deaths of six tourists last month.