IN BRIEF (Page 12)

India

240,000 die of sex bias yearly

Almost a quarter-of-a-million girls younger than 5 die in India every year due to neglect resulting from society's preference for sons, a gender discrimination study found on Tuesday. This was over and above those aborted simply for being female, researchers wrote in The Lancet medical journal. "Gender-based discrimination toward girls doesn't simply prevent them from being born, it may also precipitate the death of those who are born," said study co-author Christophe Guilmoto of the Paris Descartes University.

Mexico

Millions sucked out of banks

Thieves siphoned hundreds of millions of pesos out of Mexican banks by creating phantom orders that wired funds to bogus accounts and promptly withdrew the money, two sources close to the government's investigation said. Hackers sent hundreds of false orders to move amounts from banks to fake accounts in other banks, the sources said. One source said the thieves transferred more than 300 million pesos ($15.4 million). Newspaper El Financiero said about 400 million pesos had been stolen.

(China Daily 05/16/2018 page12)