BREAKING NEWS

'Israeli settlements in West Bank destroy nature,' Abbas tells UN

Not only do Jewish settlements in the West Bank preclude the establishment of a Palestinian state, but they are also an environmental hazard, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told the United Nations on Friday.
Abbas spoke at a special UN ceremony in New York marking the adoption of an agreement to combat global warming reached in Paris this past December.
The United Nations said 175 states took the first step of signing the deal on Friday, the biggest day one endorsement of a global agreement. Of those, 15 states also formally notified the United Nations that they had ratified the deal.
Many countries still need a parliamentary vote to formally approve the agreement, which was reached in December. The deal will enter into force only when ratified by at least 55 nations representing 55 percent of man-made greenhouse gas emissions.