The use of a dead spouse’s sperm or eggs to conceive a child is a debate that Ireland must have about the ethics of preserved genetic material, says Kathryn O’Sullivan.

The continent, and not just the EU, prizes rules and co-operation, but the US and China favour a bullying approach that benefits themselves alone, says Ana Palacio.

Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo has died aged 61, officials said.

Doctors treating jailed Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo has stopped using cancer-fighting drugs so as not to overwhelm his severely weakened liver, raising concerns that China's most prominent political prisoner is critically ill.

An "insatiable gambler" has been found guilty of murdering and dismembering his wealthy friend and dumping the torso in a suitcase at the roadside.

A late-night protest broke out in central Paris over the police killing of a Chinese man in a raid at his home.

Our regular arts/ents writers select their personal highlights of the year

More than 1,000 protesters walked and chanted in front of China's defence ministry today, the latest apparent demonstration by soldiers as the world's largest standing military modernises and downsizes.

The tie-up between Apple and Chinese car-hailing app Didi started off with a joke.

A nurse who allegedly failed to provide adequate care to an 85-year-old nursing home resident is the subject of a disciplinary inquiry.

Doctors Without Borders said it took the wrenching decision not to formally inform Syria’s government or its Russian allies about the location of some medical facilities such as the one hit by a deadly airstrike this week.

The European transfer window is not so European any more, with Chinese clubs outspending even the continent’s richest clubs in January to prove that the country is now a genuine power in attracting the world’s best players.

Doctors Without Borders has called for an independent and unprecedented fact-finding mission to investigate a US air strike on a hospital run by the medical aid group in Afghanistan that killed at least 22 people.

China won their first gold medal of their home World Athletics Championships by sweeping a 1-2 finish in the women’s 20k walk in Beijing.

China’s central bank cut interest rates and lowered the amount of reserves banks must hold for the second time in two months yesterday, ratcheting up support for a stuttering economy and a plunging stock market that has sent shockwaves around the globe.

Chinese family members of passengers aboard a missing Malaysia Airlines flight reacted with anger and scepticism yesterday after Malaysia’s government said a piece of wing debris found on an Indian Ocean island last week was from the plane.

A former mining tycoon who led a mafia-style crime gang that ran casinos and killed rivals has been executed along with four of the gang’s members, a court in central China said.

New York mayor Bill de Blasio said it was “disrespectful” for some city police officers to turn their backs to him during two funerals for dead police officers.

Thousands of New York police officers turned their backs yesterday as they watched mayor Bill de Blasio eulogize an officer shot dead with his partner, repeating a stinging display of scorn for the mayor despite entreaties from the police commissioner not to do so.

Thousands of New York city police officers again turned their backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio as he spoke at the funeral for an officer shot dead with his partner.

Protesters who have rallied for weeks over excessive use of police force rejected New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plea to suspend demonstrations after the killing of two officers.

New York City’s police commissioner says the gunman who ambushed and killed two officers had made online posts that were “very anti-police”.

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro is this year’s winner of the Confucius Peace Prize, China’s alternative to the Nobel Prize.

A former deputy head of the agency that steers China’s state-dominated economy has been sentenced to life in prison for taking bribes, adding to a growing toll of prominent figures ensnared in a spreading anti-corruption crackdown.

Years of being trapped in a bad marriage can literally break your heart, scientists have discovered.

It will take about six months to bring the ebola epidemic under control, the head of Médecins Sans Frontières said, adding that the outbreak in West Africa felt like "wartime is moving, advancing".

A rare Ming-era wine cup broke the world auction record for Chinese porcelain, selling in Hong Kong for HK$281.2m (€26.3m) to Shanghai tycoon Liu Yiqian, said Sotheby’s auction house.

A man accused of attacking a Chinese student in her Toronto apartment as her ex-boyfriend watched in horror via webcam from China has been convicted of first-degree murder.

Imprisoned Chinese Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo is to make a formal complaint seeking a retrial to overturn his guilty verdict.

China is cracking down on the number of home-grown TV talent shows such as versions of 'The Voice' and 'The X Factor' which can be broadcast.

A woman tricked a six-year-old boy into going into a field, then removed his eyeballs, police in China say.

A Chinese zoo’s supposed “African lion” was exposed as a fraud when the dog used as a substitute started barking.

A man has been carrying his house on his back for five years.

The environment ministry in China has accepted the existence of “cancer villages”, after years of assertions by academics and domestic media that polluted areas experience higher rates of the disease.

Plans to rebuild a square are proving contentious, writes Louise Watt

Five Chinese activists defied security and made a brief visit to dissident Liu Xiaobo’s wife Liu Xia, who has been under house arrest since her husband was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize two years ago.

A man in China has spent thousands creating a survival device to save him when the world ends.

Shot on location in China, ‘The Man With The Iron Fists’ is an intentionally overblown martial arts romp, which harks back to the classics of the genre.

A Chinese blogger has been arrested after posting a joke on Twitter about the pivotal Communist Party congress.

Activists, academics and dissidents are questioning China’s purge of Bo Xilai, demanding the rule of law be followed allowing the disgraced leader to defend himself.

Jason Smyth today qualified in first position for tomorrow's final of the 200m T13 final in the Paralympic Games.

Dunnes Stores has been ordered to pay almost €21,000 to a former checkout operator at its Kilkenny branch for wrongly firing her — despite the fact she admitted putting customers’ points on her own loyalty card in breach of company policy.