CHINA SAYS ONE-CHILD POLICY STAYS IN EFFECT

BEIJING: China must continue to enforce its one-child policy until new rules allowing all couples to have two children go into effect, the top family planning body said. The ruling Communist Party said last week that Beijing would loosen its decades-old one-child policy. But the plan for the change must be approved by the rubberstamp parliament during its annual session in March. The National Health and Family Planning Commission’s statement contradicts a remark by an official who said couples now pregnant with a second child will not be punished. – Reuters