Xi's Southeast Asia tour promotes good-neighborliness, mutually beneficial cooperation: Chinese FM

Chinese President Xi Jinping's just-concluded Southeast Asia tour focused on good-neighborly relations and promoted mutually beneficial cooperation, and achieved a complete success, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday.

Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said during a press briefing that Xi's trip to Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia from Monday to Friday was the first overseas tour of the Chinese head of state this year.

The tour sent a strong signal that China firmly defends multilateralism and international trade rules, Wang said.

Death toll from U.S. overnight airstrikes on Yemeni fuel port rises to 74: Houthis

The death toll from U.S. overnight airstrikes on the Yemeni fuel port of Ras Isa has increased to 74, with 171 others wounded, according to an update from Houthi-run health authorities on Friday.

The health authorities stated that rescue teams are working to search for victims and identify missing persons.

U.S. says to stop brokering Russia-Ukraine peace deal if without quick progress

The U.S. administration will stop pursuing a Russia-Ukraine peace deal unless it knows it is "doable" within days, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday.

"We're not going to continue with this endeavor for weeks and months on end. So we need to determine very quickly now, and I'm talking about a matter of days, whether or not this is doable in the next few weeks. If it is, we're in. If it's not, then we have other priorities to focus on as well," said Rubio after a trilateral meeting on Ukraine hosted by France.

11 killed, 9 injured in armed attack at cockfighting venue in Ecuador

At least 11 people were killed and nine others injured in a mass shooting Thursday night at a cockfighting arena in Ecuador's coastal province of Manabi, local media reported Friday.

The attack occurred around 11:30 p.m. local time in the town of Valencia in El Carmen canton, when a group of armed men dressed in military uniforms arrived in three vehicles and opened fire on attendees, according to broadcaster Ecuavisa. Survivors said the assailants also stole about 20,000 U.S. dollars in prize money.

At least 45 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes across Gaza: civil defense

Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Friday killed at least 45 Palestinians and injured dozens of others, according to the Civil Defense in Gaza.

Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Civil Defense, said that in the southern city of Khan Younis, 10 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting a residential home belonging to the Baraka family, while six others, including two children and a woman, died after an airstrike on a barbershop.