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A plainclothes policeman catches a woman during a police crackdown on prostitution in Quanzhou, Fujian province, October 29, 2011. China should remove criminal and administrative penalties against sex workers which often lead to serious police abuses, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on May 14, 2013. The abuses include torture, beatings, physical assaults, fines and arbitrary detentions of up to two years, as well as a failure to investigate crimes against sex workers by clients, bosses and state agents, according to the report. Prostitution is not permitted under Chinese law, although the industry has boomed since the country launched economic reforms in 1978. REUTERS/Stringer

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Death toll from unrest in Syria 1,400: Assad adviser

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MOSCOW | Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:29am EDT

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Unrest in Syria has killed 1,400 people, an adviser to President Bashar al-Assad said on Monday, a death toll that is far lower than estimates from the United Nations and opposition groups.

"According to our information, 700 people were killed on the side of the army and police and 700 on the side of the insurgents," Bouthaina Shaaban told reporters in Moscow through a translator.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said on Monday at least 2,600 people have been killed in Syria since anti-government protests broke out in March.

(Reporting by Gleb Bryanski, editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Tom Grove)
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