Environment Secretary Owen Paterson is set to reopen the debate about genetic modification by calling for the reform of crop licensing at EU level.

Microsoft backtracks on controversial plans to impose strict restrictions on the playing and trading of games on its upcoming Xbox One console.

World tennis number one Serena Williams apologises after reportedly appearing to criticise the victim in a high-profile US rape case.

Providers of the government's flagship Work Programme tell ministers the costs of helping sick and disabled jobseekers into employment cannot be met under the scheme.

The FBI has used drones for surveillance in limited cases over US soil and is developing a drone use policy, the FBI director tells the US Senate.

Australia name Israel Folau among three debutants for Saturday's first Test against the British & Irish Lions in Brisbane.

Speaking at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, President Barack Obama calls for reductions to be made in US and Russian nuclear stockpiles.

The US Secretary of State John Kerry calls the Afghan leader to defuse tension over the opening of a Taliban office, an Afghan official tells the BBC.

The government in North Korea is willing to restart talks over its nuclear programme which broke down five years ago, according to Chinese officials.

Shops belonging to Asians are targeted in a violent protest in DR Congo's capital over the arrest of Congolese students in India over the weekend.

George Osborne uses his Mansion House speech to the City to announce the government is preparing to sell its Lloyds Bank stake back to private investors.

One in nine bridges in the US - more than 66,000 in total - are structurally deficient, a number likely to grow amid US budget woes, a report finds.

There should be "no hiding place" for anyone involved in a cover-up by England's NHS regulator after baby deaths at a Cumbria hospital, the health secretary says.

Mars' atmosphere could have been rich in oxygen four billion years ago - well before Earth's air became augmented with the gas.

Egypt's tourism minister quits and protests erupt as a man with links to Islamists behind the deadly 1997 attack in Luxor is named as city governor.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge do not know the gender of their baby, it is revealed - as it is confirmed the birth will take place at St Mary's hospital in London.

A US publisher is pricing a sci-fi video game for iPhones and iPads at more than double the cost high-end titles are usually sold for on those devices.

The Afghan government will not take part in peace talks with the Taliban unless the process is "Afghan-led", President Hamid Karzai announces.

A rodent that never gets cancer could hold the key to preventing or treating malignant tumours, say scientists.

The latest international business headlines from BBC World News.