BRUSSELS, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- In one of the strongest public remarks ever, a senior representative of China's tech company Huawei on Thursday night rebutted fear-mongering against the company.

In a ballroom in Brussels packed with well over 100 guests, mostly Europeans, Huawei's envoy to the European Union institutions launched into a robust defense of the Chinese technology giant.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday met with Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir on bilateral ties and the death of Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, as the congressional deadline for the White House to submit an investigation report on his death was near.

07 Feb 2019; DW: Paris has signaled it will support changes to EU guidelines regulating gas imports. Germany has thus far ignored opposition to its project, but it may not be able to any longer.

France's Foreign Ministry has signaled its intention to vote for changes to the EU's Third Energy Package Gas Directive regulating gas imports when the topic comes up for discussion Friday in Brussels.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Matthew Whitaker, acting U.S. attorney general, will testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Friday as scheduled after a showdown with congressional Democrats over the hearing.

House Democrats had threatened to subpoena Whitaker over his oversight of the ongoing Russia probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller, his contacts with White House related to the probe and the firing of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

BERLIN, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- The German industrial production fell unexpectedly for the fourth month in a row in December 2018, the Federal Statistics Office (Destatis) reported on Thursday.

After the price, seasonal and calendar adjustments, the industrial production in December 2018 was down by 0.4 percent from the previous month. Compared to the same month in 2017, it shrank notably by 3.9 percent, according to a statement of Destatis.

08 Feb 2019; DW: Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya Sirivadhana Barnavadi, the sister of Thailand's current King Maha Vajiralongkorn, announced her candidacy Friday for prime minister in the upcoming elections on March 24.

The move was a first for Thailand, a constitutional monarchy since 1932 in which the royal family is expected to stay out of politics.

KIEV, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Ukrainian parliament on Thursday adopted a bill to ban Russian observers from monitoring Ukraine's upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections.

The legislation was supported by 232 votes in favor, surpassing the minimum of 226 required, the parliament said in a statement on its website.

According to the explanatory note, the law was adopted to prevent "Russia's intervention in Ukraine's elections" and prevent "information attacks" aimed at distorting facts about the electoral process in Ukraine.

SEOUL, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- The announcement of schedule for the joint springtime military drill between South Korea and the United States would be delayed until after the upcoming second summit between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United States, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said Friday.

An unidentified South Korean government source was quoted by Yonhap as saying plans for the joint South Korea-U.S. military exercises in the first half of this year would be announced after the second DPRK-U.S. summit.

08 Feb 2019; AFP: Hundreds of thousands of cattle weakened from a severe drought are feared to have died in record-breaking floods in northeastern Australia, authorities said Friday, as they stepped up efforts to feed surviving livestock.

Incessant rains over an almost two-week period have flooded swathes of Queensland state, with the full scale of the devastation on drought-hit cattle stations becoming clearer as floodwaters recede.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- The United States space agency NASA has released its first look of China's Chang'e-4 Lunar Landing Site.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) approached the Von Karman crater on which the the Chinese spacecraft Chang'e 4 landed, nearly four weeks after its landing.

On Jan. 30, the LRO rolled 70 degrees to the west to snap a spectacular view looking across the floor toward the west wall, according to NASA.

BUCHAREST, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) member states needed to conclude a comprehensive agreement on asylum system, so as to be better prepared for future challenges, EU Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos said Thursday.

"We have to find temporary solutions regarding the migrants' debarkation, but, at the same time, we need to reach a comprehensive and structured agreement regarding our common asylum system," he said.

Bhopal, Feb 8 (PTI) Congress chief Rahul Gandhi Friday mocked the Modi government for announcing support of Rs 6,000 per year to small and marginal farmers when it "wrote off" Rs 3.5 lakh crore loans of 15 big industrialists.