Germany is embarking on a potentially lengthy search for its next government after the center-left Social Democrats narrowly beat outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right bloc in an election that failed to set a clear direction for Europe's biggest economy under a new leader.

Leaders of the parties in the newly elected parliament were meeting Monday to digest a result that saw Merkel's Union bloc slump to its worst-ever result in a national election, and appeared to put the keys to power in the hands of two opposition parties.

A Syrian man has died after swallowing gasoline he was siphoning out of his vehicle's tank with a plastic tube, Lebanon's National News Agency reported.

Lebanon is witnessing a paralyzing fuel shortage that has driven the public to hoard gasoline and resort to black-market vendors, while many businesses have been forced to shut down. A diesel shortage has also caused extended blackouts, in a country dependent on private generators.

German voters are choosing a new parliament in an election that will determine who succeeds Chancellor Angela Merkel after her 16 years at the helm of Europe's biggest economy.

Polls point to a very close race Sunday between Merkel's center-right Union bloc, with state governor Armin Laschet running for chancellor, and the center-left Social Democrats, for whom outgoing finance minister and Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz is seeking the top job.

The U.S. has launched a campaign to offer boosters of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine to millions of Americans even as federal health officials stressed the real problem remains getting first shots to the unvaccinated.

The Taliban's takeover of Kabul has deepened the mutual distrust between the U.S. and Pakistan, two putative allies who have tangled over Afghanistan. But both sides still need each other.

With the Biden administration looking for new ways to stop terrorist threats in Afghanistan, it will likely look again to Pakistan, which remains critical to U.S. intelligence and national security because of its proximity to Afghanistan and connections to the Taliban leaders now in charge.

Trying to dispel investor fears, some Chinese banks are disclosing what they are owed by a real estate developer that is struggling under $310 billion in debt and say they can cope with a potential default.

The announcements came as Evergrande Group promised to talk with some individual investors in its debt. Other creditors waited to see whether Beijing will step in to oversee a restructuring to prevent financial disruption.

Fossilized footprints discovered in New Mexico indicate that early humans were walking across North America around 23,000 years ago, researchers reported Thursday.

The first footprints were found in a dry lake bed in White Sands National Park in 2009. Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey recently analyzed seeds stuck in the footprints to determine their approximate age, ranging from around 22,800 and 21,130 years ago.

Environmental activists, many of them students taking time out from school, staged rallies around the world on Friday to demand that leaders take stronger action to curb climate change amid dire warnings of an increasingly hotter globe if nothing is done soon.

The issue has climbed the political agenda in many countries as scientists are warning that the world faces dangerous temperature rises unless greenhouse gas emissions are cut sharply in the coming years.

China's central bank on Friday declared all transactions involving Bitcoin and other virtual currencies illegal, stepping up a campaign to block use of unofficial digital money.

Chinese banks were banned from handling cryptocurrencies in 2013, but the government issued a reminder this year. That reflected official concern cryptocurrency mining and trading might still be going on or the state-run financial system might be indirectly exposed to risks.

Liberty and Fraternity, yes. Equality, not so much.

Born of a revolution fought for liberty, ties between the United States and its oldest ally, France, have long been fraternal, but they've also been marked by deep French unease over their equality.