Pakistan, Syria, China.

Today's three stories you should know.

Jan 30, 2023

Pakistan

Horror in Pakistan today when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque used by police officers in the city of Peshawar. Hospital officials say at least 59 people were killed and more than 150 wounded, with 27 police among the dead. The Pakistan Taliban (a distinct group from the Afghan Taliban known as Tehreek-e-Taliban or TTP), which has carried out a string of attacks targeting the country’s police force, claimed responsibility for the attack. The mosque is housed in a compound that also includes police and counter-terrorism offices. An inquiry has already been launched into how the attacker managed to breach the extremely tight security cordon.

Syria

Unidentified aircraft have destroyed a convoy of trucks entering Syria from Iraq, killing seven people, according to a group that monitors the Syrian war. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition organization that relies on a network of informants inside Syria, said the trucks were carrying Iranian weapons and that the seven dead were the drivers and their helpers. After more than 10 years of war, the government of Bashar al-Assad has steadily regained control of most of Syria with the help of Russian and Iranian forces. No country claimed the strike but Israel has carried out hundreds of air raids against Iran-allied forces inside Syria.

China

China’s Sichuan province has decided to allow unmarried people to have children and benefit from incentives available to married couples in an attempt to reverse declining birth rates. Previously, only married women were permitted to give birth. There will also be no ceiling on the number of children unmarried people can have. China's population fell last year for the first time in six decades in what may prove a historic shift with major implications for the world’s most populous country.