China and Russia have agreed to take further countermeasures in response to the proposed deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD), officials from both countries said Thursday. The countermeasures will be aimed at safeguarding interests of China and Russia and the strategic balance in the region, said a statement released after the sixth China-Russia consultation on security situation in Northeast Asia.

The blast went off on Thursday night in Kafr Sousa, close to intelligence facilities and homes of ministers and officials. Such attacks are relatively rare in the Syrian capital. The explosion came days before the scheduled peace talks in Astana, Kazakhstan on January 23. It was followed by blasts early on Friday morning at a military airbase southwest of Damascus, reportedly coming under fire from Israeli jets targeting Hezbollah, according to local media.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang reiterated that China-US relations are based on “non-confrontation, non-conflict, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation,” after US Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson called for China to be blocked from accessing islands in the South China Sea. In response, Lu said the South China Sea situation has "cooled down", adding that China hopes non-regional countries can respect this consensus that is in the fundamental interest of the whole world.”

At a press conference on Thursday, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov called the deployment of US tanks, military personnel and other equipment in Poland “a threat to our interests and security.” 87 battle tanks, 144 Bradley Fighting Vehicles and 3,000 troops will carry out drills in Poland, before being deployed in countries across Eastern Europe in what NATO has called a defensive measure in response to the Ukraine crisis.

Three Chinese athletes have been stripped of Olympic gold medals won in Beijing 2008, after the IOC sanctioned eight athletes for doping after a retest of samples from previous competitions. Cao Lei, Chen Xiexia and Liu Chunhong will return their medals, with China facing a ban under the International Weightlifting Federation’s ruling that any nation with three or more positive doping tests would be barred from competition for at least one year.

Le Pen was seen drinking coffee in the basement of the New York skyscraper, sparking speculation that she was there to meet with the president-elect a week before his inauguration. She refused to comment on whether or not she was there for a meeting with Trump, with one of her companions, Italian populist politician Guido Lombardi claiming she was in New York to meet fundraisers for her own presidential campaign.

Lei Jun, the founder of the low-cost smartphone manufacturer which has seen impressive growth hit by a slump that caused it to miss its 2015 sales targets, has conceded the company, which was valued at 45 billion US dollars in 2014, grew too fast. In a message posted on Facebook and WeChat, Lei said “We must slow down and earnestly learn from our mistakes. Prevention is better than having to fix things later.” 

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Apple is in talks with television executives with a view to making original content ready for broadcast in 2017, in what could prove to be a new direction for the company after a slowdown in sales of some of its products, as well as a major shake-up for the entertainment industry.