Turkey has asked NATO to extend for another year the deployment of surface-to-air Patriot missiles to protect its troubled border with Syria because of a continuing “serious” threat, officials said on Wednesday. “We have received a letter from the Turkish government requesting the continuation of the Patriot mission,” a NATO official said.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has said that Bulgaria and Romania will not join Europe’s passport-free Schengen area in January 2014. In a Monday interview for French TV station TF1, Barroso, as cited by the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (BTA), claimed that the issue of Schengen

Saudi Arabia, in an unprecedented moved,formally rejected on Tuesday its two-year term on the UN Security Council, clearing the way for Jordan to take the seat as a replacement. The Middle East power had previously decried the 15-member council’s ineffectiveness in dealing with world affairs, notably