Friday will never be the same again.

For those with means in Dubai, the former first day of the weekend carried a gluttonous party tradition — an hourslong affair with infinite supply of seafood, pizza, dessert and Veuve Clicquot Champagne set to pulsing music known simply in this city-state as "Friday brunch."

Competing in the giant slalom at the Beijing Olympics will be a giant step for 17-year-old Kiana Kryeziu and her country of Kosovo.

Kryeziu is the first female athlete from Kosovo at the Winter Games after she met the qualifying standard during races held in Italy.

The Taliban and western diplomats have began their first official talks in Europe since they took over control of Afghanistan in August.

The closed-door meetings were taking place at a hotel in the snow-capped mountains above the Norwegian capital. Taliban representatives will be certain to press their demand that nearly $10 billion frozen by the United States and other Western countries be released as Afghanistan faces a precarious humanitarian situation.

Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha will pay an official visit to Saudi Arabia this week, the first by a Thai head of government since relations between the two nations were soured more than three decades ago by a massive jewel theft and the killing of four Saudi diplomats.

Prayuth's two-day visit starting Tuesday comes at the invitation of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, said statements from the prime minister's office and the Saudi foreign ministry.

U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters began closing in Monday on the last wing of a prison in northeastern Syria that has been controlled by militants for days, the force and a war monitor said. The raid aims to end one of the most brazen attacks by the Islamic State group in years.

Farhad Shami, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said forces are deploying with the prison facility and taking over buildings near the northern wing of the prison, where dozens of IS militants have been holed up since Thursday. Dozens have been killed in clashes since.

Three Iraqi soldiers were killed Monday morning in bomb blast targeting their patrol on a road in Kirkuk city, north of the capital Baghdad, a military source said.

A fourth soldier was injured in the same attack, which was not immediately claimed.

European Union foreign ministers are aiming to put on a fresh display of resolve and unity in support of Ukraine on Monday, amid deep uncertainty about whether President Vladimir Putin intends to attack Russia's neighbor or send his troops across the border.

"All members of the European Union are united. We are showing unprecedented unity about the situation in Ukraine, with the strong coordination with the U.S.," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters in Brussels.

The State Department has ordered the families of all American personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine to leave the country amid heightened fears of a Russian invasion.

The department told the dependents of staffers at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv that they must leave the country. It also said that non-essential embassy staff could leave Ukraine at government expense.

The United Arab Emirates intercepted two ballistic missiles claimed by Yemen's Houthi rebels over the skies of Abu Dhabi early Monday, authorities said, the second attack in a week that targeted the Emirati capital.

The missile fire further escalates tensions across the Persian Gulf, which previously had seen a series of assaults near — but never indisputably on — Emirati soil amid Yemen's yearslong war and the collapse of Iran's nuclear deal with world powers.

Thousands of people have gathered in European capitals to protest vaccine passports and other requirements governments have imposed in hopes of ending the coronavirus pandemic.

Demonstrations took place in Athens, Helsinki, London, Paris and Stockholm.