US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has relaunched his attack on China, claiming there's "significant evidence" to show their role in the coronavirus outbreak.
"There is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan," he told ABC's This Week.
Pompeo, however, did not dispute US intelligence agencies' conclusion that it was not manmade.
Meanwhile, China's state run newspaper dismissed the allegations, adding that the US official was "bluffing".
"The Trump administration continues to engage in unprecedented propaganda warfare while trying to impede global efforts in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic," the editorial said.
So far, more than 3,568,217 people around the world have been infected, with 248,347 deaths.
The Israeli military attacked the Gaza Strip for a third day on Thursday night, killing two people, the Palestinian Authority's official news agency said, in another test of a fragile ceasefire agreement.
The United States cancelled a planned Budapest summit between President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin following Russia's firm stance on hardline demands regarding Ukraine, the Financial Times reported on Friday.
Forty-three detained local United Nations staff will face trial on suspicion of links to an Israeli airstrike that assassinated top Houthi leaders in August, the acting foreign minister of Yemen’s Houthi government, Abdulwahid Abu Ras, told Reuters.
Hurricane Melissa's confirmed death toll has climbed to 49, according to official reports, after it wreaked destruction across much of the northern Caribbean and headed towards Bermuda.