WORLD

World leaders take centre stage at UN climate talks in Dubai on Friday, under pressure to step up efforts to limit global warming as the Israel-Hamas conflict casts a shadow over the summit.

Western energy firms are the usual suspects when it comes to criticism about the sector's role in climate change, but a less visible lineup of powerful state companies dominates the industry.

Visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday urged Israel to create safe zones for Palestinian civilians in Gaza before it resumes "major military operations" in the Hamas-ruled territory.

More than 50 years after the last Apollo mission, the United States will try once again to land a craft on the Moon on January 25, said the head of what could be the first private company to successfully touch down on the lunar surface.

Russian forces were ramping up attacks in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, Moscow and Kyiv said, as they vie to secure elusive territorial gains before the end of the year.

Seventeen Thai hostages kidnapped and held for weeks by Hamas in the Gaza Strip are expected to return home on Thursday to be met by overjoyed relatives at the Bangkok airport.

The UN climate conference opens in Dubai on Thursday with nations urged to increase the pace of action on global warming and phase out fossil fuels, amid intense scrutiny of oil-rich hosts UAE. The two-week-long climate negotiations being held this year in the glitzy Gulf city come at a pivotal moment, with emissions still rising and this year likely to be the hottest in human history.

The UN's former climate chief said she was "giving up hope" that fossil fuel firms will be part of the solution to warming as pivotal COP28 talks start Thursday in oil-rich United Arab Emirates.

Hours after the traumatic October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, Michael and his wife knew they had to abandon their Tel Aviv home and flee to the nearest destination, Athens, for the sake of their family.

Henry Kissinger, the relentlessly ambitious US diplomat whose unapologetic promotion of raw American power helped shape the post-World War II world, died Wednesday, his consulting firm said.

Four-year-old American hostage Abigail is surrounded by family in Israel who "brought her life back" after seven weeks of captivity, her great aunt said Wednesday, as relatives stressed they will not rest until everyone held by Hamas is freed.

A US Osprey military aircraft with eight crew on board crashed on Wednesday off a Japanese island, the coastguard said, in the latest accident involving the tilt-rotor military aircraft.

After 17 days trapped inside a collapsed Himalayan road tunnel they were building, Indian workers described the horror of their ordeal, and the hopes and prayers that kept them strong.

"All views are welcome. All views are needed," declared Sultan Al Jaber, president of the UN's COP28 and head of the Emirates state oil and gas company in the run-up to the climate talks in Dubai.

The death toll from floods that have devastated many parts of Kenya has almost doubled to 120, a government official said on Tuesday.

Finland's prime minister said Tuesday the country will shut its last border crossing with Russia, following an influx of migrants which Helsinki claims is a hybrid attack orchestrated by Moscow.

From Hamas's brutal attacks in Israel, and the fierce retribution it provoked, to the kiss that caused a revolt in Spanish football, here are 10 events that marked a tumultuous 2023: - Israel-Gaza war - On October 7, hundreds of Hamas gunmen pour across the border from Gaza, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 240 people hostage in the worst attack in Israel's history, traumatising the country and stunning the world.

Hong Kong's largest-ever national security trial began final arguments Wednesday, more than 1,000 days after authorities filed charges against 47 democracy activists under a law imposed by China to quell dissent.

The United States on Tuesday sent the first of three military planes to Egypt to bring vital humanitarian aid for Gaza, promising to assist Palestinians during a truce between Hamas and US ally Israel.

North Korea's ambassador made a rare appearance at the UN Security Council on Monday to defend his country's launch of a spy satellite, as leader Kim Jong Un studied images including of the White House and Pentagon.

The White House said on Monday a "robust" US delegation would attend a key UN climate summit in Dubai despite the fact that President Joe Biden is planning to miss it.

As European capitals prepare to implement long-awaited sanctions on Russia's diamond exports, Belgian traders are bracing for new scrutiny of their industry.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi failed to show up Tuesday for a summit in Ankara that Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan had earlier announced to reporters, but which Tehran itself never officially confirmed.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has ordered greater protection for international firms' rights and intellectual property, state media reported Tuesday, as Beijing works to lure in foreign companies spooked by a crackdown and an ailing economy.

Organisers will on Tuesday announce the host of the 2030 World Expo, with Rome in Italy, the Saudi capital Riyadh and South Korea's Busan contending to welcome the showpiece event held every five years.

Hundreds of athletes as young as seven are undergoing military training in Shanghai designed to instill discipline and "good fighting ability", the Chinese city said.

Many Gazans were hostile to Hamas ahead of the group's brutal October 7 attack on Israel, with some describing its rule as a second occupation, according to rare polling data analyzed by a US-Palestinian researcher.

Israel said Monday that 11 more hostages released in the Gaza Strip had arrived safely, hours after the announcement that a truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza will be extended by two days, opening the way for further releases.

The truce between Israel and Hamas entered its final 24 hours Monday, with the militant group saying it was willing to extend the pause after it freed more hostages, including a four-year-old orphaned by its attack.