China is boosting effort to clean up a major oil slick off its north-east coast, following a pipeline explosion. There are growing fears that strong winds have dispersed the pollution more widely than previously thought. The environmental group Greenpeace told the BBC the oil was up to 20cm thick along parts of the coast near the city of Dalian.

Shipments of oil from the north to the industrial belt in the south have been disrupted since the accident. At least one person has died during the clean-up operation, after being thrown from a ship by waves and drowning in the oil. For info read more.