China scraps one-child policy

EFT Report, Beijing: Abandoning its decades-old one-child policy, China will now allow all couples to have two children, according to a communique issued on Thursday by the Communist Party of China, Xinhua reported.

There have been increasing calls for a change because of China's shrinking labour pool. The population of people of a working age fell in 2012, suggesting China could be the first country in the world to be old before it gets rich. 

The one-child policy was introduced in 1980 because of the high birth rate - it has been heavily criticised globally with critics suggesting it is an abuse of human rights.

Parents who broke the rule faced fines and their second child being taken away.