The FAO session on Tea has agreed on what discussion on climate change can be taken up for discussions here. The 20th session of the FAO has drawn up scope and the terms of reference of the climate change working group at its meeting on Sunday.

“This will be put forward to the Inter-Governmental Group on Tuesday,” said Kaison Chang, secretary, FAO-IGG, when asked about the progress of negotiations on climate change. Discussions on climate change will now start formally with all the producing and exporting countries, and consumers. Climate change formally made its way into the summit agenda at Mombasa.

Tehran is considering a twofold increase in power exports to neighbouring Turkey after a new electricity transfer line between the two countries becomes operational.

Iran is currently exporting about 230 kilovolt per day(kV/d) of electricity to Turkey and the new transfer line will increase that capacity to 400 kV/d.

Prospects for the European Union's favored Nabucco natural-gas pipeline project appear to be dwindling, weeks before a consortium of Caspian Sea producers is due to choose one of four planned pipelines to carry its gas to Europe,

This week, Azerbaijan said it plans to build its own pipeline through Turkey that would run parallel to Nabucco's planned route. At the same time, the U.S. softened its years-long support for Nabucco, saying it now backs any of the four alternatives so long as they will deliver gas to the most "vulnerable" EU states.

At least twelve people were killed by a second earthquake in eastern Turkey, and residents protested Thursday that authorities should have closed down two hotels that were damaged by the first quake. The earthquake hit the same region slammed by a quake on October 23 that left 600 people dead in Van province.
Van’s most prominent hotel, the Bayram Hotel, survived the first quake, but it toppled in the new, magnitude-5.7 quake. The Aslan Hotel, a budget operation in Van, also collapsed.

A Japanese aid worker was among eight people killed by a second earthquake in eastern Turkey, and angry residents protested on Thursday that authorities should have closed down two collapsed hotels damaged by the first tremor.

Riot police used pepper spray to halt the protests.

A 5.6 magnitude earthquake killed seven people in eastern Turkey late Wednesday, less than three weeks after a massive quake killed more than 600 in the same area, a government disaster management centre said.

Twenty-three people were found alive from the wreckage and seven lost their lives during the quake, according to the Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency.

The death toll from eastern Turkey's devastating earthquake rose to 596 on Sunday while bulldozers were replacing sniffer dogs as search efforts wound down.

More than 4,150 people were injured in the 7.2 magnitude quake that shook the eastern Van province near the Iranian border a week ago, the prime ministry's emergency unit said in a statement on its website.

Search and rescue work ended in Van's city centre, but emergency crews went on working at two locations in the town of Ercis, which was hardest hit by the quake, the unit said.

The death toll in eastern Turkey's devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake on Sunday passed 600, the government's emergency unit said.

The number who lost their lives in the October 23 tremor stood at 601, the unit said on its website. Officials said earlier that 4,150 people had been injured while 231 had been pulled alive from the rubble.

Rain and snow today compounded difficulties for thousands rendered homeless in the powerful earthquake that hit eastern Turkey, and the government said the death toll has gone up to 534. The PM’s centre for crisis and emergency management said 2,300 people were injured and 185 were rescued from the rubble.

Meanwhile, a moderate earthquake, measuring 5.4 according to Turkey’s Kandilli seismology centre, hit the neighbouring province of Hakkari today, sending people rushing out of buildings in fear and panic.