Eurasia Press & News

EU leaders Wednesday night in a ceremony in Athens officially inaugurated the six-month Greek Presidency of the EU, stressing the support of Brussels for Greece to overcome its economic and political crisis.

A special Pakistani court formed to hear the treason case against the former president Pervez Musharraf issued an order on Thursday for his appearance at its next hearing which has been adjourned to January 16.

France will reduce its troop numbers in Mali, where it routed Islamic radicals last year, to 1,600 troops by mid-February, according to the French President Francois Hollande.

Greece officially assumed the EU’s six-month rotational presidency on Wednesday at a ceremony in Athens. The Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras stressed that

Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul has expressed his strong support for the separation of powers in his country. He delivered a speach on Thursday during a visit to a military academy in Istanbul.

US Secretary of State John Kerry is hitting the road again from January 11 to the 15 for discussions about the war in Syria in France.

Greek Ambassador to Belgrade Constantine Economides said on Wednesday that the EU-Serbia intergovernmental conference scheduled for Jan. 21 will be a historic moment both for Serbia and the Western Balkans.

The Turkish government removed police chiefs in 16 provinces, including the capital of Ankara overnight amid a corruption probe that has shaken the country, local media reported on Wednesday.

A first shipment of chemical materials was moved from Syria on Tuesday, which initiated the process of transferring chemical weapons from the country to locations outside its territory for destruction.

An Egyptian court adjourned Jan. 8 the murder trial of Mohamed Morsi to February 1, citing “weather conditions” that prevented the toppled president’s transport to court from his prison. It had been scheduled as the second hearing in Morsi’s trial, after an initial court appearance in November