Middle East & North Africa

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.

JERUSALEM, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The Israeli military, responding on Friday to a Reuters investigation that determined its forces killed a Reuters journalist in southern Lebanon on Oct. 13, said the incident took place in an active combat zone and was under review.

Without directly addressing the death of visuals journalist Issam Abdallah, a military statement said Lebanese Hezbollah fighters had at the time attacked across the border and Israeli forces opened fire to prevent a suspected armed infiltration.

BAGHDAD, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Explosions were heard early on Friday near the U.S. embassy in central Baghdad's Green Zone with alarm sirens sounding inside the building, local media reported.

It was unclear whether there was any damage, it added.

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.”

(AP) --- It’s called “Article 99.” And it hasn’t been used for decades. Until this week.

With an intensifying Israeli offensive and escalating civilian casualties, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres invoked a rarely exercised power this week to warn the Security Council of an impending “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza. He urged members to demand an immediate humanitarian cease-fire.

JERUSALEM (AP) — The United States has offered strong support to Israel in its war against the Hamas militant group that rules the Gaza Strip. But the allies are increasingly at odds over what will happen to Gaza once the war winds down.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Desperation grew Thursday among Palestinians largely cut off from supplies of food and water as Israeli forces engaged in fierce urban battles with Hamas militants. Strikes in the southern Gaza town of Rafah sowed fear in one of the last places where civilians could seek refuge.

ANKARA, December 6. /TASS/: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is balancing on the verge of collapse, something that he may indicate any time soon, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

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.

DOHA, Dec 6 (NNN-QNA) – The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), yesterday condemned Israel for its “indiscriminate bombing” of the Palestinian enclave of Gaza Strip, while calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

“The leaders of the GCC countries warned of the dangers of expanding confrontations and the spread of the conflict to other regions in the Middle East, unless the Israeli aggression stops,” said the Doha Declaration, adopted by the 44th session of the GCC Supreme Council held in the Qatari capital of Doha.