UAE

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels slammed into a Norwegian-flagged tanker in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen near a key maritime chokepoint, the rebels and authorities said Tuesday.

DUBAI, Dec 11 (NNN-KBC) — Oil rich Azerbaijan will host the next conference of the United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP29) in 2024, after days of marathon lobbying by the Eastern European nation.

The country managed to wither strong competition from Armenia, which was also bidding to host the 2024 round of the climate talks.

The development comes amid a stiff stalemate at the ongoing COP28 in Dubai, with only four days before the meet closes here in the United Arab Emirates.

DUBAI, Dec 11 (Reuters) - With the COP28 climate talks entering crunch time on Monday, U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell urged countries to come together to reach a final deal for the summit - where they were facing off over whether to call for an end to fossil fuels.

Stiell said there had been progress in resolving some disagreements over the last day, but warned that "each step back from the highest ambition will cost countless millions of lives".

DUBAI, Dec 11 (Reuters) - The only thing Iran and Israel share is that both do not believe in a two-state solution, Iran's foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Monday via translation at an international forum in Doha.

During the forum, Amirabdollahian reiterated Iran's proposal that a referendum be held to determine the fate of Palestine, with only descendants of those who lived there prior to 1948 being permitted to vote.

DUBAI, Dec 9 (Reuters) - The European Union's climate chief on Saturday heavily criticised an attempt by OPEC to derail a COP28 deal on phasing out fossil fuels, calling the move by the oil producers' club "unhelpful" and "out of whack".

Nearly 200 countries meeting in Dubai for the U.N.'s COP28 climate summit are debating whether to agree, for the first time, to eventually end the world's use of fossil fuels, the main cause of climate change.

DUBAI, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Countries clashed on Saturday over a proposed agreement to phase-out fossil fuels at the COP28 summit in Dubai, jeopardising attempts to deliver a first-ever commitment to eventually end the use of oil and gas in 30 years of global warming talks.

Observers in the negotiations said Saudi Arabia and Russia were among several countries insisting that the conference in Dubai focus only on reducing climate pollution - and not on targeting the fossil fuels causing it.

DUBAI, Dec 8 (Reuters) - COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber urged countries on Friday to get out of their comfort zones and work together to reach agreement before the two-week summit ends.

"Let's please get this job done," he said, opening a plenary session as the summit entered its toughest phase of negotiations. "I need you to step up and I need you to come out of your comfort zones," he said.

With five days left before the conference's scheduled end on Dec. 12, country ministers are joining the deliberations on Friday.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Nations climate conference on Friday began its final week with negotiators expected to zoom in on the future of fossil fuels on a dangerously warming planet.

Reopening COP28 after a rest day, President Sultan al-Jaber described what he saw as an “unprecedented level of momentum” for the summit.

The climate summit is “sending a clear signal that all of us — small and large – can make a difference,” al-Jaber said. “Let us build on that success for an unprecedented outcome.”

ABU DHABI, December 6. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked UAE counterpart Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan for his country's efforts in the environmental sphere.

"Today, one of the most important international ecological forums (the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change - COP28 - TASS) is being held in the UAE. The initial results of the Paris agreements are being summarized," Putin said during talks with Al Nahyan.

DUBAI, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Yemen's Houthi group launched several ballistic missiles at military posts in the southern Israeli city of Eilat, the group's military spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday.

Earlier Wednesday, the U.S. Navy shot down a drone that originated from a part of Yemen controlled by the Houthi group, a U.S. defense official told Reuters.