Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejected Israel's assertion that its strikes on Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip were self-defense, saying the Jewish state is carrying out "ethnic cleansing" against Palestinians."No one can say Israel is using its right to self defense," Erdogan told lawmakers from his party in a speech at the Turkish parliament in Ankara today. "Israel is snubbing peace in the region, stomping on international law and carrying out ethnic cleansing against a people.

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) -- Six Palestinians were killed Tuesday in a new wave of Israeli strikes on Gaza, medics said, raising the Palestinian toll from six days of bombardment to 116.The raids ended a night of relative quiet in which no-one was killed for the first time since Israel launched its relentless aerial assault on rocket-firing militants in the enclave on November 14, Palestinian medics said.More than 920 people have been injured in the bombing campaign.Emergency serv

The U.S. ambassador to South Korea voiced optimism Tuesday about the future alliance between the two countries, saying that Seoul-Washington ties will be further bolstered whoever wins the December presidential election here.U.S. President Barack Obama won re-election and South Koreans go to the polls on Dec. 19 to pick their next leader. Some South Koreans are concerned that the current lockstep cooperation between the two countries is unlikely to be sustainable, particularly for the North Kore

Germany sold its last European Union carbon permits for immediate delivery in the bloc's second phase, completing three years of sales that earned the nation almost 3 billion euros ($3.84 billion).Europe's largest economy today sold 868,000 permits at 6.56 euros a metric ton on the European Energy Exchange AG. EEX has hosted 269 German sales of a total 129 million tons starting in 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. In 2008 and 2009, the country sold 80 million permits through its sta

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Asia-Pacific nations will launch negotiations for two giant free trade pacts Tuesday that diplomats say may foster warmer ties at a time of deep tensions over multiple territorial rows.China, Japan and South Korea, embroiled in maritime disputes that have frayed diplomatic ties, were due to start talks for a free-trade agreement when their trade ministers met on the sidelines of an Asian summit.Negotiations for a separate Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership involving t

Concentrations in the atmosphere of the three main gases blamed for global warming all rose in 2011 to their highest since records began, the United Nations said.Carbon dioxide, responsible for about 80 percent of the global warming effect of greenhouse gases, gained 0.51 percent to 390.9 parts per million molecules of air, the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization said today in an e-mailed bulletin. The methane concentration increased 0.28 percent and the nitrous oxide level rose 0.31 percen

PHNOM PENH (Yonhap News) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak headed to the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday after attending a set of annual cooperation summits with Southeast Asian and other Asia-Pacific countries in Cambodia.During a summit with the 10 member nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Lee pledged to expand South Korea's development assistance and other aid to the increasingly important region of vibrant economies with high growth potential.Lee also attended a mee

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) -- President Barack Obama closed his Asian tour in diplomatic talks with leaders of Japan and China, their economic message overshadowed by security tensions over disputed waters and territories. The crisis between Israel and Hamas militants intervened, too, as Obama rushed his top diplomat straight from Cambodia to the Mideast.Obama was wrapping up four days in Southeast Asia on Tuesday and starting the long journey home, where fiscal deadlines and decisions await.On t

JERUSALEM (AP) -- A knife and ax-wielding Israeli man attacked and lightly wounded a security guard at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv on Tuesday before he was apprehended at the scene, police said.Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the assailant was an Israeli citizen in his early 40s. He said man's motive was unknown, but political motives were not suspected and the incident had nothing to do with Israel's battle with Hamas militants in Gaza.U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) -- President Barack Obama dispatched Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Middle East on Tuesday as the U.S. urgently seeks to contain the bloody conflict between Israel and Hamas.Clinton hastily departed for the region from Cambodia, where she had joined Obama for summit meetings with Asian leaders. The White House said she would make three stops, meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Palestinian officials in Ramallah, in the

PHNOM PENH (Yonhap News) -- South Korea declared the opening of two sets of ambitious negotiations toward potentially massive free trade deals Tuesday, which if realized, would create huge new markets in Northeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region.The two negotiating processes, one of them between South Korea, China and Japan, and the other involving 16 Asia-Pacific countries, are the most tangible outcomes of a series of annual summits in Cambodia led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nation

An Emirates Airbus A380 superjumbo made an emergency landing in Sydney shortly after takeoff on its way to Dubai following an engine fault."There was no fire, flames or smoke, however passengers may have witnessed a spark and a noise from the engine," Emirates said in a statement.The incident, which occurred yesterday with 380 passengers onboard, is being investigated, said the airline, which took delivery of its latest flagship plane yesterday.Emirates, which has ordered a total of 90 of the do

BRUSSELS (AFP) -- Greece has "delivered" on its economic reform pledges and a long-awaited report from its international creditors is "positive", Jean-Claude Juncker, who heads the Eurogroup of finance ministers, said Monday.The payment of a key tranche of international aid to stave off bankruptcy in Greece has frozen since June pending judgement on its reform programme by the so-called "troika" of creditors, the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.Arriving for

BEIJING (AFP) -- China's Communist Party will on Thursday unveil the new set of top leaders who will take over the reins of the country for the next decade, one day after their week-long congress ends, the party said Monday.The widely expected timing was confirmed to AFP by staff organising press coverage of the Communist Party congress under way in Beijing, which is held every five years to shuffle the top leadership of the party.Chinese President Hu Jintao, who has been in power ten years, is

Adopting measures to promote energy efficiency can buy the world an additional five years to seal a climate-protection deal, the International Energy Agency said.Under current policies, nations need a climate agreement by 2017, when energy infrastructure will probably produce, or lock in, all emissions allowable by 2035 at a level consistent with preventing dangerous global warming, the agency said today in its World Energy Outlook report."Rapid deployment of energy-efficient technologies, as in