By Yuliia Dysa and Max Hunder

KYIV, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Russia attacked two Ukrainian ports on Friday, damaging ​three Turkish-owned vessels including a ship carrying food supplies, ​Ukrainian officials and one ship owner said, days after Moscow threatened to cut "Ukraine off from the sea".

Last week, Russian ⁠President Vladimir Putin vowed retaliation against Kyiv's maritime drone attacks on Moscow's "shadow fleet" tankers thought to be used to export oil, which Kyiv says is Russia's main source of funding for its almost ​four-year-old war.

Dec 12 (Reuters) - A joint Saudi-Emirati military ​delegation arrived in ​Aden to discuss measures aimed at ⁠defusing tensions in southern Yemen days after the country’s main southern separatist group ​claimed broad control across the ‍south, a government ​source told Reuters on Friday.

The Southern Transitional Council said the takeover included the eastern provinces of Hadhramaut and ⁠Mahra, and that the separatist group is present in all eastern provinces of south Yemen, including Aden, the base of the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government.

By Erin Banco and Jonathan Landay

WASHINGTON, Dec 12 (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence officials temporarily suspended sharing some key information with Israel during the Biden administration over concerns about its conduct of the war in Gaza, according to six people ​familiar with the matter.

In the second half of 2024, the U.S. cut off a live video feed from a ​U.S. drone over Gaza, which was being used by the Israeli government in its hunt for hostages and Hamas militants. The suspension lasted for at least a few days, said five of the sources.

TUNIS, Dec 12 (Reuters) - A ​Tunisian court on ​Friday sentenced prominent ⁠opposition figure Abir Moussi to 12 years in prison, ​her lawyer told ‍Reuters, in what ​rights groups say is a new step towards entrenching President ⁠Kais Saied's one-man rule and using the judiciary to crush his critics.

"The ruling is unjust and is not a ​judicial decision ⁠but a ⁠politically motivated order," Moussi's lawyer Nafaa Laribi told Reuters.

OSLO, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Iranian human rights ​activist and Nobel Peace ​Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi was arrested in ⁠a "brutal" manner in Iran and must be released immediately,the Norwegian Nobel Committee, whichawards the ​prize, said on Friday.

Mohammadi has ‍previously served multiple sentences ​on charges including spreading propaganda against the Islamic Republic. Late last year, she was released from Tehran's Evin prison after ⁠the suspension of her jail term to undergo medical treatment.

In the Nile Delta village of Nagrig, residents love local son Mohamed Salah from a distance, with ructions between the Egyptian super striker and long-time English club Liverpool doing little to dim his lustre at home.

"Thanks to him I can dream," 16-year-old Mohamed Ahmed told AFP as he stepped onto a pitch at the Nagrig sports complex where Salah first honed his talents before making his improbable journey to some of football's most dizzying heights.

Iranian security forces on Friday detained the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi along with at least eight other activists in an arrest condemned as "brutal" by the Norwegian Nobel committee.

Mohammadi, who was granted temporary leave from prison in December 2024, was detained along with eight other activists at the ceremony for lawyer Khosrow Alikordi, who was found dead in his office last week, her foundation wrote on X.

JERUSALEM, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Israel's cabinet has decided to give legal ​status to 19 settlements in the ​occupied West Bank, including two that were vacated 20 years ago under ⁠a pullout aimed at boosting the country's security and the economy, Israeli media reported.

The Palestinian Authority on Friday condemned the move, announced ​late on Thursday.

Some of the settlements are newly established, ‍while others are older, Israeli ​media said.

Gaza's civil defence agency on Friday said at least 16 people had died in the last 24 hours, including three children who died from exposure to the cold, as a winter storm batters the territory.

Heavy rain from Storm Byron has flooded tents and temporary shelters across the Gaza Strip since late Wednesday, compounding the suffering of the territory's residents, nearly all of whom were displaced during more than two years of war.

A raft of proposed measures from Israel's ruling coalition targeting the media has sparked outrage, with critics warning the planned reforms would deliver a blow to press freedom.

Suggested changes to public broadcasting, coupled with a bid to give permanent powers to the government to ban foreign TV channels which are deemed a threat, come as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to seek another term next year.