BEIJING – China is to relax its policy of restricting most couples to have only a single child, state media say. In future, families will be allowed two children if one parent is an only child, says the Xinhua news agency. The one-child policy already exempts rural dwellers and ethnic minorities. The move comes after…
BERLIN – Former German President Christian Wulff is going on trial accused of receiving and granting favours in office. He is alleged to have accepted the payment of hotel bills by a film producer in return for lobbying while he was premier of Lower Saxony in 2008. Mr Wulff – who stepped down in February…
WASHINGTON – US Secretary of State John Kerry has told the BBC that none of the differences between world powers and Iran over its nuclear programme are big enough to prevent agreement. He said they came “extremely close” to a deal at the weekend in Geneva. But he said the rest of the world had…
HARARE – Survivors root through the splintered wreckage of their homes searching for loved ones who may be buried beneath. Others are scrambling to find food and water in areas littered with corpses. Three days after Super Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms in recorded history, scythed across the central Philippines, people here are…
MANILA – Around 10,000 people may have died in just one area of the Philippines hit by Typhoon Haiyan, according to officials. One of the worst storms on record, it destroyed homes, schools and an airport in the eastern city of Tacloban. Neighbouring Samar island was also badly affected, with reports of 300 people dead…
ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s former military ruler Pervez Musharraf has been released from house arrest and is free to move around the country, prison officials say. It comes days after he was bailed over the 2007 army operation to oust militants from Islamabad’s Red Mosque – the last legal case against him. But the former general…
VIRGINIA – Democrat Terry McAuliffe, buoyed by strong results from voters in Northern Virginia, has defeated Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli in the race for Virginia’s governor, CNN projects. While both campaigns took on national issues, such as the partial government shutdown earlier this year and the health care law’s flawed rollout, the race was…
NEW DEHLI – India has successfully launched a spacecraft to the Red Planet – with the aim of becoming the fourth space agency to reach Mars. The Mars Orbiter Mission took off at 09:08 GMT from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on the country’s east coast. The head of India’s space agency told the BBC…
WASHINGTON – The White House and top US lawmakers have rejected clemency for the fugitive intelligence analyst Edward Snowden. “Mr Snowden violated US law. He should return to the US and face justice,” said White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer. Mr Snowden asked for international help to persuade the US to drop spying charges against him…
WASHINGTON – US Secretary of State John Kerry has said that in some cases, US spying has gone too far. Mr Kerry is the most senior Obama administration official to have commented directly on an issue that has upset America’s European allies. He said he will work with the president to prevent further inappropriate acts…
