120 million: About 120 million people will go for a swim at the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers in India during a Hindu festival that runs until March.
160,000: Italians are quitting their country in record numbers at a time when the country's population is already shrinking thanks to live births at an all-time low. Some 160,000 Italians moved abroad in 2018, the largest number of emigrants since 1981.
860: The Iranian government arrested, imprisoned or executed at least 860 journalists in the three decades between the Islamic revolution in 1979 and 2009, according to documents leaked recently to Reporters Sans Frontieres, a media advocacy group. The files also revealed that 61,900 political prisoners had been held since the 1980s, with more than 500 of them aged 15-18.
371: In Nigeria, more people died last year in clashes over land between farmers and cattle-herders than were slain by the terrorist group Boko Haram. In the country's northwest, bandits killed 371 people and displaced 18,000 in the first seven months of 2018.
