* Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Nay Pyi Taw on Friday for a state visit to Myanmar. It is Xi's first overseas trip this year, and the first visit to the Asian neighbor by a Chinese president after an interval of 19 years.
* Tourism officials from ASEAN, China, the Republic of Korea (RoK) and Japan reaffirmed their commitment on Thursday (January 16) to strengthen their cooperation to make the region more competitive globally.
* China's economy grew 6.1 percent year on year in 2019, within the government's annual target of 6 to 6.5 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Friday. The reading was lower than the 6.6-percent growth registered in 2018.
* RoK's unification ministry said on Friday that the country's policy on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) belonged to a matter of sovereignty.
* Eleven US troops were treated for concussion symptoms as a result of the January 8 Iranian missile attack on an Iraqi base where US forces were stationed, the US military said on Thursday, after initially saying no service members had been hurt.
* Palestine plans to request a UN investigation into Israel's environmental practices in the West Bank, the Palestinian Environment Quality Authority (PEQA) said on Thursday.
* A magnitude 5.6 earthquake hit the southern Mexican state Oaxaca, close to Salina Cruz, on Thursday, the country's National Seismological Center reported.
* Ukraine's Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk has submitted a letter of resignation and President Volodymur Zelenskiy will consider it, the presidential office said on Friday.
* Intense thunderstorms with heavy rains dampened bushfires on Australia's east coast on Friday to the relief of exhausted firefighters, and farmers battling years of drought.
* US President Donald Trump on Thursday declared a major disaster in earthquake-hit Puerto Rico, boosting aid to the island a day after placing tougher restrictions on billions of dollars in delayed hurricane relief.
* Mexico's foreign ministry said top officials met with US Attorney General William Barr on Thursday and agreed on a bilateral program aimed at reducing the trafficking of illicit arms, drugs and money.
* A total of 483 members of Lebanon's Internal Security Forces (ISF) have been injured since the beginning of nationwide protests in last October, the ISF said Thursday.
