Snippets
• A sewage leak from a chemical plant in Linxiang city recently spilled arsenide, a known carcinogen, into a river in central China's Hunan province, poisoning drinking water for nearly 100,000 local people. The plant has been ordered closed. While authorities are busy detoxifying the river water, 18 fire engines are now distributing fresh water to the residents.
• At least 370 fisherfolk were missing after their trawlers were caught in a storm in the Bay of Bengal off India's east coast, in the first week of September. The fisherfolk on 26 trawlers were part of a fleet of 100 that went out to sea. In another similar incident, a trawler with 18 fishermen was capsized in the Bay of Bengal near Digha; 14 of them were rescued.
• Hurricane Florence hit Bermuda on September 11 with sustained gusts of 120 km per hour. As per government sources, there was no report of casualties. As the tropical storm headed out over the Atlantic, it weakened in the cooler waters off Canada's maritime province.