North Korea said Monday leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to develop more powerful means of attack, days after the country's first intercontinental ballistic missile launch in more than four years.

The statement suggests North Korea might perform additional launches or even test a nuclear device soon as it pushes to modernize its arsenal and increase pressure on the Biden administration while nuclear diplomacy remains stalled. Last Thursday, the North performed its 12th round of weapons tests this year, launching the newly developed, long-range Hwasong-17, which analysts say was designed to reach anywhere in the U.S. mainland.

Taliban hard-liners are turning back the clock in Afghanistan with a flurry of repressive edicts over the past days that hark back to their harsh rule from the late 1990s.

Girls have been banned from going to school beyond the sixth grade, women are barred from boarding planes if they travel unaccompanied by a male relative. Men and women can only visit public parks on separate days and the use of mobile telephones in universities is prohibited.

Ukraine could declare neutrality, potentially accept a compromise on contested areas in the country's east, and offer security guarantees to Russia to secure peace "without delay," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said ahead of another planned round of talks. But he said only a face-to-face meeting with Russia's leader could end the war.

While hinting at possible concessions, Zelenskyy also stressed that Ukraine's priority is ensuring its sovereignty and its "territorial integrity" — preventing Russia from carving up the country, something Ukraine and the West say could now be Moscow's goal.

With a spot on the line for what could be his fifth and final World Cup, Cristiano Ronaldo needs to avoid an upset like the one that ended Italy's hopes of making it to the tournament in Qatar.

Portugal faces a winner-take-all game on Tuesday against North Macedonia, the team that shocked Italy last week to keep the four-time champions out of the World Cup for the second straight time.

When a missile flew into an oil depot close to the track hosting the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, discussions among Formula One teams and drivers switched from human rights to personal safety.

The big question: Was it safe to remain in Jiddah and compete in the second race of the F1 season after Friday's attack about 11 kilometers (seven miles) away?

They are superstar strikers fighting to secure what could be their last chance to play on soccer's biggest stage.

And one thing's for sure: there isn't room for both Robert Lewandowski and Zlatan Ibrahimovic at the World Cup in Qatar.

Jordan's King Abdullah II met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah on Monday, in his first trip to the Israeli-occupied West Bank since 2017, Abbas's office said. 

Abdullah's visit came as foreign ministers from four Arab countries and the U.S. wrapped up a meeting which host Israel hailed as "historic", following a series of normalization agreements last year which angered the Palestinians.

Authorities in three European countries have frozen more than $130 million in assets linked to an investigation into money laundering in Lebanon, a European Union agency said Monday.

The measures taken by officials in France, Germany and Luxembourg come as Lebanon grapples with a devastating economic crisis and coincide with domestic and European investigations of its longtime central bank governor, Riad Salameh. The crisis, which started in October 2019, is rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement and has continued with no serious steps by the country's political class to work for a solution.

The United Arab Emirates' energy minister doubled down Monday on an oil alliance with Russia that's helped buoy crude prices to their highest in years as Moscow's war on Ukraine rattles markets and sends energy and commodity prices soaring.

The minister said Russia, with its 10 million barrels of oil a day, is an important member of the global OPEC+ energy alliance.

Israel on Monday hosted the foreign ministers of four Arab nations and the United States in a bid to strengthen its position in a rapidly shifting Middle East.

The gathering brought together the top diplomats from all but one of the Arab countries that have normalized relations with Israel in U.S.-mediated negotiations, including three that signed the so-called Abraham Accords during the Trump administration in 2020.