London, Aug 28 : One in seven children in Britain -- almost 1.8million -- now live in totally work-free households, the majority with a single parent, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

There has been barely any reduction in the number of households where all adults are out of full-time work in the past five years, the figures show, The Telegraph reported.

Using the Labour Force Survey of employment, researchers found that 15.8 per cent of all households in Britain that contain at least one person of working age had no one in full-time employment. It means that there is complete unemployment in a total of 3.06m families in which someone should be able to work.

Tehran  - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered that certification be proved of an honorary doctorate from Oxford University which his interior minister claims to have, Iran's official IRNA news agency said Wednesday.

Newly-appointed Interior Minister Ali Kordan had earlier this week claimed to have an honorary doctorate in law from the university, which the British institution categorically denied.

Taipei  - Taiwan confirmed on Wednesday that the United States has decided to sell 60 Harpoon Air Launch anti-ship missiles to Taipei, in a move ending a de facto freeze on US arms sales to the island.

Defence Ministry Spokeswoman Chih Yu-lan told the Central News Agency (CNA) that Taipei made the request to buy the missiles, worth 90 million US dollars, in 2007, and delivery was scheduled for 2009.

Washington  - North Korea must verify the processing for its disarming nuclear capability before the United States removes the Stalinist state from its terrorism blacklist, US official said Tuesday.

"We'll wait for North Korea to produce this verification package so that we can move on to the next steps," State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood said.

North Korea announced earlier Tuesday that it was suspending disarmament because the United States had not lived up to its obligations under a six-nation deal.

Beirut - Lebanese President Michel Suleiman is to make a two- day official visit to Qatar on September 1 ahead of his tour to various Arab capitals after the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, official sources said.

The president is also to visit the United States for talks with officials in Washington and to head Lebanon's delegation to the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York.

The General Assembly session is scheduled for mid-September, the sources said.

Havana  - Former leaders of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) have posted a document on the Internet to demand "participative and democratic" socialism on the island, warning that the current style of socialism generates unpredictable "frustration."

"Mostly, Cubans are frustrated, alienated and hopeless, and the new generations, demotivated, do not feel the same commitment as earlier ones to this 'poor and without perspective socialism' that is so far away from expectations," the document says.