Saturday marks the start of the Chinese Lunar New Year - celebrations took place across the world as the Year of the Rooster got underway. Hundreds of millions of Chinese returned to their hometowns to reunite with their families, eat dinner together and enjoy the traditional Spring Festival gala, while cities across the globe held spectacular firework displays. 

The US remains fully behind NATO under the Trump administration, British Prime Minister Theresa May said at a press conference with the new US president at the White House. May became the first foreign leader to visit Trump since his inauguration on Friday local time. Meanwhile, Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto spoke on the phone on Friday after a meeting scheduled for next week was canceled amid anger over the proposed border wall. 

Global spending on player transfers hit a new high in 2016, boosted by a big increase in purchases by Chinese football clubs. Clubs in the Chinese Super League spent 451.3 million US dollars on transfer fees in 2016, a 168.2 percent increase on the year before. The total spending on transfer fees worldwide hit 4.8 billion US dollars in 2016, a 14.3 percent rise, according to FIFA’s Transfer Matching System.

US think tank 38 North claims new commercial satellite imagery indicates the DPRK has resumed operation of a reactor at its main nuclear site used to produce plutonium for its nuclear weapons program. The think tank said there are signs that the DPRK is preparing to restart the reactor at Yongbyon, having previously unloaded spent fuel rods for reprocessing to produce additional plutonium for its nuclear weapons stockpile.

Some of the most traditional Chinese customs are turning digital, and not just among the young. A new survey shows that 95.2 percent of respondents will teach their parents how to use a smartphone app to send hongbao, the festive red envelopes containing gift money. People traditionally exchange hongbao during China's Lunar New Year. A growing number of Internet companies have introduced digital hongbao to fuel the use of mobile payments. 

President Donald Trump has signed an executive memorandum detailing plans to boost the US military - an increase in the number of troops, warships and a more modernized nuclear arsenal is on the cards. At a ceremony at the Pentagon to swear in General James Mattis as the new defense secretary, Trump also announced new vetting measures to "keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the US.”

François Fillon has said he will step down as the Républicains candidate for the French presidency if charges are brought over an ongoing scandal involving alleged illegal payments to his wife. Fillon denies the allegations, but such a move would leave the election, the first round of which is scheduled for April 23, wide open and his party without an obvious candidate. Voting in a run-off election to choose Benoît Hamon or Manuel Valls as the Socialist party candidate will take place on Sunday.

The European Commission has imposed anti-dumping duties on steel products from China. An investigation by the Commission found that Chinese stainless steel tube and a type of butt-welded pipe fitting have been sold in Europe at dumping prices. Chinese exports will now be taxed with duties ranging from 30.7 to 64.9 percent.