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China announced Friday that it is loosening its decades-old one-child policy, and abolishing its system of "re-education through labor" camps.

In order to have a second child, one parent would have to be an only child under the new rules. Previously, both parents had to be only children in order to have a second child.

A state-run news service says the government will make a big change to the policy designed to restrain population growth. That policy has also led to a relative shortfall of young people and especially of girls.

"Militant Islamist rebels in Syria ... have asked for 'understanding and forgiveness' for cutting off and putting on display the wrong man's head," The Telegraph reports.

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American involvement in the Philippines goes much farther back than that. To look more at U.S.-Phillipine relations we turn to Patricio Abinales who grew up in the Philippines and is now a professor at the University of Hawaii. He says his country's love-hate relationship with the U.S. began in 1898. The United States kicked out colonial Spain after the Spanish-American War, but to the dismay of many Filipinos, the U.S. did not grant the country its freedom - instead ruling the islands for decades after crushing an independence movement.

Aid is starting to get to some of the survivors of Typhoon Haiyan, but the sad news from the Philippines on Friday is that for many of the storm's victims things still aren't much better after a week without adequate food, water or shelter.

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The American air craft carrier George Washington is now serving as a launching platform for typhoon aid in the Philippines. It's the latest chapter in relations between two countries that share a long and intimate history. The relationship includes many Filipinos who have moved to the United States, like novelist Gina Apostol.

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She grew up in Tacloban. We found her in Massachusetts where she's been tracking down her relatives in that devastated city.

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One week after a typhoon crashed into the Philippines, hundreds of thousands of people remain homeless. NPR's Jason Beaubien reports from the city of Tacloban, where people are getting desperate for food and clean water.

President Obama on Thursday asked Congress to hold off on imposing any new economic sanctions on Iran to give negotiators more time to forge a deal on Tehran's nuclear program.

"My message to Congress has been that let's see if this short-term, phase-one deal can be completed to our satisfaction," Obama told reporters during a White House briefing.

"Let's test how willing they are to actually resolve this diplomatically and peacefully," he said.

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When Typhoon Haiyan hit last Friday, parts of the country were already in desperate shape following a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that struck October 15. The epicenter of that quake was under the island province of Bohol southeast of Tacloban. Since then, a number of makeshift medical facilities have been set up to treat patients with a wide range of issues.

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From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Audie Cornish.

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And I'm Robert Siegel. Nearly a week after a devastating typhoon slammed into the Philippines, the scale of the crisis is staggering. Millions of people across dozens of islands need help; that includes food, shelter and clean water. It also means help burying the dead. Some 2,000 people in the city of Tacloban are known to have died in the storm. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports on what's being done about their bodies.

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The oil rich Arab states of the Persian Gulf typically depend heavily on foreign labor. In Saudi Arabia, according to the census there a couple of years ago, almost a third of the population of 27 million or so are foreign workers, typically low paid workers from Africa and Asia. This year, that system seems to be breaking down.

The Saudis are clamping down on illegal immigrants and that campaign has led to departures, protests, mass detentions, and scenes of violence in the streets of the capital, Riyadh.

Toronto police say they've cracked a massive child porn network, rescuing 386 children around the world and nabbing hundreds of suspects, including teachers, clergymen and doctors.

Of the 348 people arrested worldwide, 108 were in Canada and 76 in the U.S. Project Spade, as the sweep is known, is described by Canadian police as one of the largest-ever child porn busts.

After admitting to smoking crack, to buying illegal drugs and to more than once being in a drunken stupor, it would seem like Toronto Mayor Rob Ford couldn't say anything else that would really shock anyone.

Well ...

Saudi Arabia, Arab News

Police in Jeddah have arrested 20 Ethiopians on charges of instigating and leading a mob to lay siege to a deportation center.

It's the latest development since the Saudi government began cracking down on workers who are in the country illegally.

In a separate story, the newspaper reported that 4,060 undocumented workers were detained in Mecca. They will be deported.

The official death toll from the typhoon is expected to keep rising — thousands are still missing. Aid continues to come into the Philippines from around the world, but its flow is being hampered by poor logistics. The central government is being blamed for not doing more.

Stories of survival are still emerging from the Philippines following the devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan. The U.S. military has been playing a major role helping the area recover. Survivors say if not for U.S. Marine transport planes, they would be trapped in Tacloban.

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From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

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And I'm Audie Cornish.

The poppy crop in Afghanistan has hit record levels, a sign that the drug trade there continues to rise. That's according to the latest numbers from a United Nations report out today. The U.S. warns that a boost in opium production will provide more money for Taliban insurgents.

As NPR's Tom Bowman reports, those rising numbers come despite billions of dollars spent to eradicate the poppy plant.

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The UN, as well as private charitable groups, are deploying an army of humanitarian aid workers to the areas hardest hit by the typhoon and the need is massive. Agencies say they will need millions to rebuild. Many of us want to know, how can I help? Should I send money, clothes and to whom? Will it reach the people who need it the most?

We're joined now by Bob Ottenhoff of the Center for Disaster Philanthropy to offer some practical guidance. Hi there, Bob. Welcome to the studio.

ROBERT OTTENHOFF: Hi. Thanks for having me.

Scotland Yard says it believes a British spy whose naked, decomposing body was found padlocked inside a gym bag in a bathtub three years ago, probably died accidentally.

Gareth Williams, 31, was working for Britain's MI6 spy agency when his body was found at his home in August 2010.

Last May, a coroner concluded that Williams was probably murdered, but on Wednesday London Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt told reporters that the death was "most probably ... an accident."

Updated Nov. 14 at 10:30 a.m. ET.

It's hard to imagine what would happen when, in the wake of destruction, lights go dark and cellphones become useless. For many inhabitants of the Philippines this past week, that was reality.

Hunger can make people emotional, that's for sure. Some people get "hangry" when their blood sugar levels drop and their irritability rises. Others get greedy.

But new research suggests that we may have another, innate response to hunger: a desire to encourage others to share what they have.