Hundreds of thousands of Chinese were ordered to stop drinking water from the Yellow River today after diesel fuel leaked into a tributary.

Hundreds of workers in northern China are battling to contain an oil spill that has left a 20-mile (33-kilometre) stretch of river polluted with diesel.

Profits at China’s top state-owned companies fell 30% last year, hurt by the global financial crisis, but assets have increased.

The head of a Chinese chemical company blamed for a toxic spill that poisoned a major river and strained relations with Russia has been removed from his post, the company said today.

China’s biggest oil company apologised for an explosion that polluted a north-eastern river with benzene and prompted the government to cut off running water to 3.8 million people, while another blast in the country’s south-west raised fears today of a second toxic spill.