Briefly

SYRIA

Death toll of war put at least 384,000 fatalities

At least 384,000 people have died in Syria, including more than 116,000 civilians, since the war began in March 2011, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says. The monitoring group, which relies on a network of sources in Syria, said on Saturday that the toll includes about 22,000 children and 13,000 women. At least 129,476 Syrian soldiers, allied forces and militiamen have died, according to the group, based in Britain, including 1,697 members of Hezbollah. Nearly 57,000 rebels have died, as well as 13,624 members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The death toll includes 421 unidentified victims. The United Nations human rights chief declared in 2017 that the Syrian conflict was the "worst man-made disaster since World War II".

LIBYA

More than 300 migrants intercepted off coast

Libya's coast guard intercepted over 300 Europe-bound migrants off the country's Mediterranean coast and returned them to the capital, Tripoli, the UN migration agency said. The International Organization for Migration said that most of the 301 migrants intercepted on Saturday, were taken to detention centers in Libya. It said that some managed to escape at the disembarkation point, as the boats were brought back to shore. "It is unacceptable for this to continue despite repeated calls to put an end to the return of vulnerable people to detention and abuse," said Safa Msehli, a spokeswoman for the IOM. Most migrants make the perilous journey in ill-equipped and unsafe rubber boats. The IOM said earlier that its estimated death toll among migrants who tried to cross the Mediterranean past the "grim milestone" of 20,000 deaths since 2014.

UNITED STATES

US political divide over climate change seen

Coverage in the US of climate change has become dominated by partisan voices over three decades, a study posted on the website of the University of Michigan says. The researchers analyzed climate change articles from 11 newspapers nationwide between 1985 and 2017, and they looked at how often those articles mentioned Republicans, Democrats and scientists. This allowed for a comparison over time between different environmental issues. In the 1980s and 1990s there were more mentions of scientists than politicians in climate change coverage, but this trend changed in the 2000s as politicians were cited more often. The researchers also looked at how the words surrounding mentions of partisan actors in climate change articles changed over time. This revealed that the language associated with mentions of Republicans and Democrats has become more distinct. The political divide around the issue of climate change has also led to greater coverage of the views of politicians, which has probably contributed to the polarization of public opinion, the researchers said.

Xinhua - Agencies