Is China the world’s smartest country?

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China: The world’s cleverest country?

This month the BBC will be following the lives of some of the world’s most magnificent creatures.

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VIDEO: Behind scenes of Planet Earth Live

This month the BBC will be following the lives of some of the world’s most magnificent creatures.

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VIDEO: Behind scenes of Planet Earth Live

For weeks, Chen Guangcheng pretended to be sick. Living under the watchful eye of the world’s biggest security apparatus, his every movement closely monitored, the self-trained lawyer was hoping his jailers would let down their guard. On Sunday, they did. Read full article > >

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For blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng, a dramatic tale of escape

The life of what may be the world’s most endangered tribe

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In Pictures: ‘World’s most endangered tribe’

The inquiry by the Securities and Exchange Commission is focused on at least three studios and creates a potential roadblock for the industry’s plans to expand in one of the world’s largest markets.

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S.E.C. Asks if Hollywood Paid Bribes in China

A university in England is setting up the world’s first research centre to look at tourism to places of disaster and violence.

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‘Dark tourism’ motives examined

Comfort zones are equally as damaging as they are protective. Harmful because they isolate, desensitize, and in the case of many Americans living a snug distance away from major conflict zones, they dehumanize, simplifying entire populations into images on a TV screen where the choice to flip a switch off is all we need to disconnect ourselves from ongoing violence that much of the world cannot escape.

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“Art is Politics”: A Conversation with Iraqi Artist Wafaa Bilal, Part I

First Solar, one of the world’s leading solar-panel makers , announced Tuesday that it will close its German manufacturing operations late this year, indefinitely idle four of its 24 production lines in Kulim, Malaysia , on May 1 and lay off 2,000 employees — about 30 percent of its global workforce. Read full article > >

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First Solar to close German plants, lay off 2,000 workers

Usain Bolt wants to “amaze” the world at London 2012 by running 9.4 seconds for the 100m and 19 seconds for the 200m.

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I want 9.4secs at Olympics – Bolt

Sony once wowed the world with the Walkman and the Trinitron TV. But its fortunes have taken a sharp turn amid disruptive new technologies and unforeseen rivals.

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How Sony Fell Behind in the Tech Parade

The best news photographs from around the world

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Week in pictures: 7-13 April 2012

Spanish conservationists say there is a ray of hope for the world’s most endangered cat, the Iberian lynx.

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VIDEO: Europe’s big cat roams free again

One of the world’s largest research charities, the Wellcome Trust, is to support efforts by scientists to make their work freely available for all.

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Boost for open access to research

Burma’s president holds his first talks with Karen rebels in an effort to end one of the world’s longest running civil conflicts.

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Burma leader meets Karen rebels