The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Friday her country is willing to resume talks with South Korea if conditions are met, indicating it wants Seoul to persuade Washington to relax crippling economic sanctions.

Kim Yo Jong's statement came days after North Korea performed its first missile tests in six months, which some experts said were intended to show it will keep boosting its weapons arsenal if the U.S.-led sanctions continue while nuclear diplomacy remains stalled.

After a no-confidence vote in Libya's transitional government this week added to uncertainty ahead of key elections in December, one of its leaders said Thursday the government would hold an international conference next month on trying to keep the political process on track.

Mohammad Younes Menfi, who chairs Libya's three-member Presidential Council, announced the plan but gave few specifics at the U.N. General Assembly meeting of world leaders. He said the conference would involve "relevant national bodies and institutions," plus regional and international voices.

Fighting flared up this week between Yemen's Houthi rebels and pro-government forces in the country's southern province of Shabwa, killing 35 from both sides, tribal leaders and security officials said.

Clashes are now in their third day in several districts of the largely government-controlled province, including Bayhan and Usaylan, said the officials and the elders. Dozens have been wounded on both sides, they said.

The Biden administration is imploring Iran to quickly return to talks on its nuclear program after a three-month hiatus caused by its government transition, warning that the window for negotiations may soon close.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and a senior administration official said Thursday that U.S. patience is wearing thin and that further delays while Iran continues to expand its atomic capabilities could lead Washington and its partners to conclude a return to the landmark 2015 nuclear deal is no longer worthwhile.

The cinematic escape of six prisoners who tunneled out of an Israeli penitentiary earlier this month shone a light on Israel's mass incarceration of Palestinians, one of the many bitter fruits of the conflict.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have passed through a military justice system designed for what Israel still portrays as a temporary occupation, but that is now well into its sixth decade and critics say is firmly cemented.

Taking center stage in a prestigious Spanish film festival to receive a top career award, actor Johnny Depp presented himself as a victim of the "cancel culture" that, he said, has spread across the cinema industry.

Depp was addressing questions on Wednesday by reporters at the San Sebastian International Film Festival about the loss of Hollywood's favor for new roles ever since his ex-wife, actress Amber Heard, went public with allegations of domestic violence against him.

After three-and-a-half weeks on a hunger strike, Henning Jeschke is frail and gaunt, but determined to go on, still hoping to pressure the three candidates for chancellor of Germany into meeting him for a debate about the climate crisis ahead of Sunday's general election.

For the first time in Germany, climate change is perhaps the most dominant issue in an election campaign, especially for young voters. It's at the center of televised debates among candidates, and five of the six main parties offer plans with varying degrees of detail for slowing global warming.

French league leader Paris Saint-Germain made it seven straight wins but needed another injury-time winner to beat last-place Metz 2-1 in an unconvincing performance on Wednesday.

The referee was about to blow the final whistle when right back Achraf Hakimi netted his second goal in the fifth minute of injury time with a curling shot past goalkeeper Alexandre Oukidja.

Britney Spears said in a court filing Wednesday that she agrees with her father that the conservatorship that has controlled her life and money since 2008 should be terminated.

The filing in Los Angeles Superior Court from Spears' attorney Mathew Rosengart says she "fully consents" to "expeditiously" ending the conservatorship, which her father James Spears, who has controlled it for most of its 13 years, asked for in a Sept. 7 petition.

Fears that a Chinese real estate developer's possible default on multibillion-dollar debts might send shockwaves through global financial markets appeared to ease Thursday as creditors waited to see how much they might recover.

Shares of Evergrande Group, one of China's biggest private sector conglomerates, rose 18% in Hong Kong after the company said it would pay interest to bondholders in China.