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.

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.