Russian president Vladimir Putin says that the US$50bn South Stream gas pipeline has been scrapped in favour of a new route through Turkey. Putin blamed the cancellation of the project – which would have seen a pipe constructed along a route through Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary- on opposition from within the …

Turkey’s exclusion from the European Defense Agency is undermining closer cooperation between Turkish and European defense companies, Sedat Guldogan, deputy undersecretary of the country’s Ministry of National Defense Industries said Wednesday.

The 21st Ministerial Council of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is due to begin here later on Thursday, with presence of some 50 foreign ministers. The annual event is held under an invitation of the 2014 OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Switzerland’s Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter.