Suicide bomber kills 47 school children in the city of Homs

A suicide bomber had killed 47 children in a school in the city of Homs in Syria giving rise to protests – the children were under the age of 12 news.sky.com. As a part of the protests, hundreds took to the streets calling for the city's governor Talal al Barazi to resign.
The Governor is accused of playing down the atrocity after saying 30 pupils were killed. Actually, the death toll was 54 as revealed by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
It seems the protest began as a mass funeral for the children, but gradually morphed into a demonstration as residents vented their rage over the attack on the school which lies in the Akrameh neighborhood of the government-controlled city- Its residents are mainly Alawite, like President Bashar al Assad.
SANA, the state news agency of Syria has described the school bombing as "a horrible human tragedy" and anti-Assad activists have also condemned the attack. However, no agency has claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Man fatally stabs four school children to death in China

It seems fatal stabbing of school children in China is becoming a habit that the authorities are getting used to. In the latest incident, a man fatally stabbed four elementary school students while they were on their way to school in southern China foxnews.com.
The attack took place in Lingshan County of Guanxi Province. Three of the children were killed instantly and the fourth one died later in hospital. The police are searching for 56-year-old suspect.
China is a country where it is difficult to lay hands on firearms and has witnessed many high-profile slashing attacks that have targeted schools over the past 10 years. Accordingly, security measures have been tightened security but little in the way of lasting policy changes. Of course, some cities including Beijing require ID and registration for the purchase of some kinds of knives.
It may be recalled that an attacker had killed three students in a knife attack at a school in Hubei province earlier this month. And, in May 2010, an attacker hacked seven children and one teacher to death and wounded 20 other people in a rampage at a kindergarten in northwest China.
At the time, it was the fifth in a string of savage assaults at the country's schools in three months. Incidentally, many of the attacks have been carried out by adults with no connection to the schools, and the authorities believe that the assailants suffered from mental illness or were lashing out at society because of some personal grudge.