A Chinese city has banned high school students from tearing up textbooks or yelling in hallways to relieve exam pressure, state media said. The ban, issued by the Xiamen Education Bureau, comes 10 days before the National College Entrance Examination. Almost ten million students across China sit for the notoriously difficult, two-day exam every year. High schools should instead provide ...

The BBC Micro Bit, the tiny computing device designed to get children coding, is going on sale to the general public. The device is already being delivered, free, to one million Year 7 children in schools across the UK. Now it will also be available to buy from the various partners in the project for £12.99. Commercial availability of the ...

The US has warned that the Euro 2016 football championship being held in France next month could be a target of militant attacks. “The large number of tourists visiting Europe in the summer months will present greater targets for terrorists,” the State Department said. The event is being hosted from 10 June to 10 July at various venues. France is ...

Militants from the so-called Islamic State have launched a dawn counter-attack as Iraqi government troops push into the city of Falluja. A day after troops advanced through the southern suburb of Nuaimiya, scores of IS fighters attacked them, army officers told news agencies. The army defeated the attackers but suffered casualties, the sources said. Aid workers are increasingly concerned for ...

Police in Greece and the Czech Republic have arrested more than 20 people suspected of forging travel documents for migrants trying to enter Europe. European police agency Europol said visas and passports were sold for up to £2,500 ($3,600) and sent across the EU, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Greek police said the criminal networks were also involved in ...

Japanese game-maker Nintendo is about to release two new games in its hugely popular Pokemon series. But a decision to use only Mandarin Chinese names for the characters has proved controversial in Hong Kong. The BBC looks at why fans and linguists are so riled. 1. What’s in a name – Beikaciu or Pikaqiu? Pokemon characters’ names used to be ...

Mohamed Abdelaziz, secretary general of movement fighting for independence of Western Sahara, dies in Algerian hospital. Mohamed Abdelaziz, the secretary general of the Polisario Front, a movement fighting for independence of the largely desert region of Western Sahara, has died. Abdelaziz, 68, died on Tuesday afternoon after a lengthy battle with cancer in an Algerian hospital, the official website of ...

More than 45 million people are living in modern slavery, with Asia accounting for two thirds of the victims, a new report says. The 2016 Global Slavery Index, from the Walk Free Foundation in Australia, defines slavery as “situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, abuse of power or deception”. Modern forms ...

A Turkish court has convicted a former Miss Turkey of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, giving her a 14-month suspended prison sentence. Merve Buyuksarac, 27, was found guilty of insulting a public official for postings she made on social media. She denied insulting Mr Erdogan. Her lawyer says he will file a formal objection to the verdict and take the ...