Not content with issuing stamps infused with chocolate-flavoured glue and boasting an airport with more chocolate shops than anywhere else in the world, the Belgians are mulling going to the European Union to try to get their signature product protected.

Mick Davis, the chief executive of the coal miner Xstrata, is to leave with a £14.2m pay-off and continued use of the company's private jet, as its proposed merger with the commodities giant Glencore received the green light from a crucial regulator.

Outlook So Mick Davis has left the building a bit earlier than expected. The £30m in retention bonuses a supine board planned to kick his way following the marriage of his Xstrata with Ivan Glasenberg's Glencore almost became the straw that broke the back of this unlovely Bactrian when investors cried foul.

It is not the way comic book capers are supposed to end. A man who made headlines around the world when he handed over a friend to police dressed as the super hero Batman has been charged with burglary.

Students in the village of Zhang Jiawan have to make a demanding daily descent down a series of rickety ladders to reach their school

Ai Weiwei appears to be standing in front of a London theatre, which would be some trick, even for the provocative and unpredictable Chinese artist.

Coal mining within the region has led to a major economic revival. But how has this prosperity benefited the nomads or the environment?

Giant commodity trader Glencore is set to get final clearance for its $32 billion (£20.9 billion) takeover of mining group Xstrata some 14 months after it first launched their bid.

The future of women’s fiction looks bright as the once-a-decade list of best young British authors was dominated, for the first time in its 40-year history, by female authors.

Press conference called for Thursday

A shock slowdown for the world’s second-biggest economy sent tremors through global markets yesterday as fears of an end to China’s breakneck growth mounted.

A Chinese vessel that ran into a protected coral reef in the south-western Philippines held evidence of even more environmental destruction inside: more than 10,000kg of meat from a protected species, the pangolin or scaly anteater.

The Independent spoke to Joo-il Kim, a North Korean defector who now lives in New Malden, Surrey, about his life and the current political stand-off in Korea. His story of what led to him escaping is one of shocking sadness, but since coming to the UK - where he is working on a newspaper to smuggle into the country - he has been able to lead a much happier life.

A fire at an internet café spread to a hotel on the upper floors of a building in central China, killing 13 people and injuring 50 others.