Russia, Greece, Iran and Iraq will officially not be posing any threat to Turkey soon. Turkish media said that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan intends to considerably revise the national security strategy in October 2010. The head of the Turkish government will reportedly exclude the above-mentioned countries from the list of external threats.

• August 30, 2010

Diversification of the gas market in Lithuania will eliminate the need for ties to the Russian energy sector by 2020, the Lithuanian energy minister said.

• August 30, 2010

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych faced a tough grilling over press freedom in an interview with the German media before a visit to Berlin on Monday. The president had hoped to focus on economic issues.

• August 30, 2010

Chancellor Angela Merkel has weighed in on Germany's ongoing nuclear energy debate, saying the country needs to run its nuclear energy plants for at least 10 more years to keep energy costs down and ensure demand is met.

• August 30, 2010

Russia has launched an ambitious project to build a new spaceflight center in the country's Far East to replace the Baikonur cosmodrome it has been leasing from Kazakhstan since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

• August 30, 2010

OMV, central Europe’s biggest oil company, says Turkey is the most likely location for additional power plants.

• August 30, 2010

Israeli and Palestinian leaders were looking forward to direct talks this week in Washington with both hope and apprehension. The two sides have agreed to hold direct peace talks beginning Thursday, the first such talks since 2008.

• August 30, 2010

When Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada was in Delhi a few days back for the fourth round of strategic dialogue between Japan and India, he made it clear that negotiations on a civilian nuclear cooperation pact are going to be rather difficult.

• August 30, 2010