By Marianna Parraga and Jonathan Saul
HOUSTON/LONDON, Dec 10 (Reuters) - More than 30 U.S.-sanctioned oil vessels doing business in Venezuela could face punishment by Washington after the Coast Guard seized a supertanker carrying Venezuelan crude for export, according to shipping data.
Once a picturesque Red Sea port, the city of Aden in government-controlled Yemen has been transformed by the massive influx of people fleeing war: electricity cuts are constant, running water scarce and the meagre public services badly overstretched.
The centuries-old city has become a haven for people seeking safety and work since Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized the capital Sanaa, forcing out the sitting government.
By Gram Slattery and Humeyra Pamuk
WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Trump administration officials have held advanced discussions on hitting U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA with terrorism-related sanctions, said two sources with direct knowledge of the matter, prompting serious legal and humanitarian concerns inside the State Department.
The United Nations agency operates in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, providing aid, schooling, healthcare, social services and shelter to millions of Palestinians.
WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that an announcement about which world leaders will serve on the Gaza Board of Peace should be made early next year.
Trump told reporters during an economic event in the White House Roosevelt Room that a variety of leaders want to be on the board, which was established under a Gaza plan that set up a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas militants.
(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Chris Reese)
COPENHAGEN, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Iceland will not take part in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, the country's public broadcaster RUV said on Wednesday, after organiser the European Broadcasting Union last week cleared Israel's participation.
The decision to allow Israel to take part in the next Eurovision, which will be held in Vienna in May, earlier prompted Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Slovenia to withdraw in protest, citing Israel's conduct in the Gaza war.
UAE-backed south Yemeni separatists have taken control of vast new areas, rattling the anti-Houthi government and threatening to further divide a country fractured by more than a decade of civil war.
Yemen is already split between the Iran-backed Houthis who control much of the north and a fractious patchwork of anti-rebel groups in the internationally recognised government.
By Ahmed Elimam and Ahmed El Jechtimi
RABAT, Dec 10 (Reuters) - At least 22 people were killed and 16 others injured overnight when two adjacent buildings collapsed in Fez, one of Morocco's oldest cities, the prosecutor said on Wednesday.One building was unoccupied, while the second was hosting an Aqiqah, a traditional Muslim celebration marking the birth of a child, the Fez prosecutor said in a statement.
The prosecutor said the death toll was preliminary and that an investigation has been opened.
The collapse of two buildings killed 22 people in the northern Moroccan city of Fes, authorities said Wednesday, in the deadliest accident of its kind in the kingdom in recent years.
The Fes prosecutor's office said in a statement the collapse occurred after 11:00 pm (2200 GMT), with women and children among the dead and sixteen people injured.
Locals told AFP the buildings did not meet standards as authorities only allow two-storey buildings in that area, but the two buildings had four floors each.
By Olivia Le Poidevin and Suleiman Al-Khalidi
GENEVA, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Israeli Druze leader Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif urged the United States to guarantee the security of the Druze community in Syria to prevent a recurrence of intense violence earlier this year in Sweida, a Druze-majority province in Sunni-dominated Syria.
Amnesty International on Thursday accused Hamas and its allies for the first time of crimes against humanity during and after their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, with the Palestinian militant group rejecting the report as "lies".
The findings also drew criticism from Israel, which accused Amnesty of bias and of failing to give a full accounting of the crimes committed during the attack, which sparked the Gaza war.
