Syria war has killed more than 340,000

BEIRUT: Syria’s grinding war has killed over 340,000 people since it broke out in 2011, including more than 100,000 civilians, a monitor said on Friday.
The death toll increased as key international powers step up diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the brutal conflict, and just days before a fresh round of peace talks in Geneva. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP it has documented 343,511 deaths in Syria between the eruption of an anti-government uprising in mid-March 2011 and the start of this month. Among them are 102,618 civilians, including nearly 19,000 children and 12,000 women.
More than 119,000 pro-government forces have been killed, including 62,000 Syrian troops, tens of thousands of loyalist militiamen, and 1,556 fighters from Lebanese movement Hezbollah, according to the estimate. Another 59,000 fighters from rebel groups, Islamist factions, and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces were also killed. Jihadist groups suffered the biggest blow, with the more than 62,200 deaths representing an increase of 4,000 since the Observatory published its last toll in July.

China kindergarten sex abuse claims police probe
By Reuters
BEIJING/SHANGHAI: Chinese police are investigating claims of sexual molestation and needlemarks on children at a Beijing kindergarten, the latest case in a booming childcare industry to spark outrage among parents.
The official Xinhua news agency said late on Thursday that police were checking allegations that some teachers and staff at the kindergarten, run by pre-school operator RYB Education Inc, had abused children, who were “reportedly sexually molested, pierced by needles and given unidentified pills”. RYB shares slumped almost 40 percent in premarket trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, almost wiping out all of the 44 percent rise in the stock since its IPO in September. Parents said their children, some as young as three, relayed troubling accounts of a naked adult male conducting purported “medical checkups” on students, who were also unclothed, other media said. Some parents, who gathered outside the school to demand answers on Thursday, said their children gave matching accounts of being fed unidentified tablets and of punishments where students were “made to stand” naked in class, media said.