China charges 9 people for dumping toxic waste

BEIJING – Chinese authorities have charged nine people from a waste treatment company with illegally dumping 35,000 tons of toxic waste, some of which contaminated a section of the Yangtze River near Shanghai.

The official Xinhua news agency says the charges were filed Friday in the city of Changshu. The nine people are accused of sending garbage from Haiyan county, near Shanghai, to "unqualified" individuals who then dumped the waste in the river or buried it. The dumping occurred between August and December of last year.

Authorities stopped the operation after spotting two boats dumping waste near the mouth of the Yangtze River.