EU Thousands of supporters of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan turned out to give him a hero's welcome, as he returned from a European Union summit in Brussels with a hard-won date for the start of EU entry talks. Climate-UN Participants at a UN climate change conference agreed to open informal international talks on future efforts to fight global warming in Bonn, Germany in May. Belgium Veterans joined with the people of southern Belgium to pay tribute to Allied forces who, in freezing winter 60 years ago, repulsed the last major German counter-offensive of World War II. Lebanon The Syrian army carried out a limited redeployment in Lebanon, pulling army intelligence troops out of the Beirut airport, the southern suburbs of Beirut and northern Lebanon, a Lebanese army officer told AFP. Mideast A second day of violence in the south of the Gaza Strip claimed two further lives as Israeli troops continued an incursion which has left 11 Palestinians dead. Iraq Several Turkish embassy guards were killed in an attack in the northern city of Mosul as they travelled to Baghdad in the latest outbreak of the violence threatening to mar Iraq's landmark elections next month. Bosnia Bosnia's Foreign Minister Mladen Ivanic, a Serb, stepped down after international sanctions were imposed on the Bosnian Serbs for their lack of cooperation in bringing suspected war criminals to justice. Afghanistan The Afghan government ordered an inquiry into an apparent jailbreak attempt by suspected Al-Qaeda prisoners which left five guards and four inmates dead. Cuba Cuba has mounted pictures of US soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison onto billboards outside the US mission in Havana in retaliation for US Christmas illuminations highlighting Cuban dissidents. Russia Devastated Russian oil giant Yukos's main asset was to go under the hammer in an auction expected to be won by state gas behemoth Gazprom, creating a government-controlled energy monolith reminiscent of Soviet times.