China says up to 300,000 died in Nanjing at the hands of Japan's military A governor of Japan's public broadcaster, NHK, has denied that the Nanjing massacre took place, days after a row over Tokyo's use of war-time sex slaves engulfed the new NHK chief. Naoki Hyakuta made his comments as he campaigned for a right-wing candidate in the Tokyo gubernatorial election. Mr Hyakuta, a prominent novelist

A majority of people polled on all continents said Germany had a positive influence on the world Germany is the most positively viewed nation in the world in this year's annual Country Ratings Poll for the BBC World Service. More than 26,000 people were surveyed internationally for the poll. They were asked to rate 16 countries and the European Union on whether their influence in the world was "ma

Mathenge Wa Ireri: "It is not quite enough because of the punishment we had" Kenyans tortured by British colonial forces during the Mau Mau uprising will receive payouts totalling £20m, Foreign Secretary William Hague has announced. He said the UK government recognised Kenyans were tortured and it "sincerely regrets" the abuses that took place. A lawyer for the victims said they "at last have the

As the police manhunt stepped up - some members of the public flocked to sites like Reddit to try and find their own clues Internet users tried for days to piece together clues about the culprits of the Boston bombings. The result? They got it wrong - and left innocent people fearing for their safety. Many are now asking: should "crowd-sourced investigations" be stopped? Thousands have been tirele

They're beautiful, well dressed and for the right price will promote anything from washing powder to luxury cars. But working as a product promoter or "pretty" in Thailand is an occupation where image counts for everything.

France is switching off its groundbreaking Minitel service which brought online banking, travel reservations, and porn to millions of users in the 1980s. But then came the worldwide web. Minitel has been slowly dying and the plug will be pulled on Saturday. Many years ago, long before the birth of the web, there was a time when France was the happening-est place in the digital universe. What the T

What does the economic future hold for Greece, Europe and the world economy? Jeremy Paxman is joined by Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman, venture capitalist Jon Moulton and Conservative MP Andrea Leadsom to discuss whether austerity is always the best method for resolving a country's national debt problem. Watch the entire programme on the BBC Newsnight website.