Teacher charged with using needles on young children

A Beijing preschool teacher who was accused of using needles to "discipline" her students has been formally charged, the Supreme People's Procuratorate announced on Tuesday.

The teacher - identified only as Liu from Hebei province - was detained in December in the capital's Chaoyang district after an investigation into alleged child abuse at the Xintiandi branch of RYB Kindergarten.

Parents alerted police in November after finding their children, all around 3 years old, with needle marks on their bodies. The children had also been given unidentified white pills, they said.