Numbers: DPRK refugees, one-child bonuses and the blind

• 300,000: That's the number of North Korean refugees believed to be living illegally in the Yanbian region on the northeastern border which is bracing itself for another influx of refugees. AFP reports that apart from ethnic Korean Chinese nationals, state-approved and underground churches are providing these refugees with shelter and aid.
• RMB 600: That's how much the Chinese government will pay parents in rural areas with no more than one son or two daughters a year each starting from the age of 60. Contrast this with baby-bonus schemes in child-starved Singapore and Australia. Use this baby-bonus calculator to see if you're eligible to claim the bonus in Australia!
• 12 million: That's the number of people in China handicapped with various eye problems. Each year, 45,000 Chinese lose their eyesight, and 1.35 million people get lazy eyes.
• HK$322 billion: That's how much ICBC is expected to raise in its initial public offering. The bank is the first-ever company to list on both A- and H- share markets simultaneously and is widely tipped to be the largest IPO in fund market history, surpassing Japan's NTT Mobile Communications' US$18.4 billion record.
• 600,000: That's the estimate of the total number of civilian lives lost in the violence across Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion. This breaks down to 15,000 deaths a month, although researchers acknowledged a margin of error between 426,369 to 793,663 deaths.

Image of anti-US North Korean propaganda poster from DPRK Studies.