A new rocket designed to launch humans to the moon, Mars and beyond will launch next year from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. On board, will be a familiar fuzzy figure — Snoopy.

A 5-ounce plush toy version of the daydreaming beagle — wearing a space suit designed according to NASA's strict specifications — has an important job for the Artemis I unmanned mission.

A Danish artist who is seeking to retrieve his sculpture in Hong Kong commemorating the victims of China's 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown said Friday he wants safe passage guaranteed for himself and his employees when they dismantle and remove the artwork called "Pillar of Shame," which is at the center of a controversy.

In an open letter, Jens Galschioet said that his presence in Hong Kong is "necessary" because the 8-meter-tall (26.25 feet), two-ton sculpture is "very difficult to move ... without causing significant and irreparable damage."

Germany's disease control center is calling for people to cancel or avoid large events and to reduce their contacts as the country's coronavirus infection rate hits the latest in a string of new highs.

The center, the Robert Koch Institute, said Friday that Germany's infection rate climbed to 263.7 new cases per 100,000 residents over seven days, up from 249.1 the previous day.

Negotiators at this year's U.N. climate talks in Glasgow appeared to be backing away Friday from a call to end all use of coal and phase out fossil fuel subsidies completely, but gave poor countries hope for more financial support to cope with global warming.

The latest draft proposals from the meeting's chair called on countries to accelerate "the phase-out of unabated coal power and of inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels."

Top U.K. and European Union officials are meeting Friday to try to resolve their intractable Northern Ireland trade spat, with alarm growing in Europe that Britain plans to suspend parts of the legally binding divorce agreement between the two sides.

That would trigger EU retaliation and could spiral into a trade war between the 27-nation bloc and its increasingly estranged former member.

Embattled Japanese technology conglomerate Toshiba said Friday it is restructuring to improve its competitiveness, spinning off its energy infrastructure and computer devices businesses.

The energy infrastructure spinoff will include Tokyo-based Toshiba Corp.'s nuclear power operations, including the decommissioning efforts at the nuclear plant in Fukushima that suffered meltdowns after an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

Russia sent paratroopers to Belarus Friday in a show of support for its ally amid the tensions over an influx of migrants on the Belarusian border with Poland.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that as part of joint war games Russian paratroopers will parachute from heavylift Il-76 transport planes in Belarus' Grodno region that borders Poland.

A Taliban provincial spokesman says a bomb exploded in a mosque during Friday prayers, wounding 15 people in eastern Afghanistan, where Islamic State group militants have been waging a campaign of violence.

Qari Hanif, the government spokesman for Nangarhar Province, said the bomb appeared to have been planted inside the mosque in the town of Traili, located in the mountainous Spin Ghar area outside the provincial capital Jalalabad.

South Korea's main opposition presidential candidate said Friday he will strengthen military cooperation with the United States and Japan if elected to better cope with North Korea's nuclear threat and would strive to make the North a leading foreign policy priority for the U.S.

Yoon Suk Yeol has been leading public opinion surveys since becoming the conservative main opposition party's nominee last week for next March's election to choose the successor of current liberal President Moon Jae-in.

Turkey's Civil Aviation Authority said Friday that the country is halting airline ticket sales to Iraqi, Syrian and Yemeni citizens wanting to travel to Belarus, which in recent months became a route for migrants and refugees to enter the European Union.

EU leaders have put increasing pressure on airlines to stop bringing people from the Middle East to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, from where asylum-seekers seeking better lives can then travel by car to the EU's doorstep.