The resignations further the triumph of Prime Minister Erdogan’s authority over the military, but also pose a new and complicated set of challenges for his Justice and Development (AKP) led government going forward.

Friday's resignation of so many top commanders for the first time ever signals a deep rift with the government.

Rating agency Moody's put Spain on review for a possible downgrade today (29 July), adding to concerns that a Greek rescue package has done little to halt the spread of Europe's debt crisis.

Cypriot President Demetris Christofias on Thursday (28 July) dissolved his cabinet amid growing public anger over the handling of Iran-bound ammunition that exploded earlier this month and wiped out the country's main energy plant.

A top Russian official today called Sens. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) "radicals" and "monsters of the Cold War" and warned that the U.S.-Russia relationship would collapse if Republicans came to power.

Contradictory statements made by eurozone politicians to domestic audiences have underlined the fragility of last week's deal to rescue Greece and unsettled financial markets already on edge due to the US debt impasse.

Moody's rating agency downgraded Cyprus two notches 26 July, saying concerns about its fiscal position were amplified by the consequences of a massive blast that destroyed the island's largest power station on 11 July.

Britain this week became the third NATO member to say that Gaddafi might be permitted to stay if Libyan rebels were willing to accept his presence in the country under a deal.

A state department memo confirms that most or all of the 60 officials implicated in the Magnitsky conspiracy have been red-flagged in the Consular Lookout and Support System (CLASS), a database used to grant or refuse visas.

Ankara would have to operate without NATO’s intelligence information on incoming ballistic missiles if it chooses to buy Chinese or Russian systems for its national air and missile defense program, officials of NATO had warned Turkey.

"We can't allow the American people to become collateral damage to Washington's political warfare," Obama declared Monday in a prime-time address to the nation.

Once the smoke cleared around the general relief that leaders had managed to forge a deal, the details raised further questions.

Latvia is heading for early general elections on 17 September after its citizens overwhelmingly voted to dissolve parliament in a referendum aimed at cleaning up politics from corruption.

Admitting that eurozone leaders had disregarded his advice on avoiding a selective default for Greece or any other 'credit event', Trichet however stressed that the leaders prepared themselves with the exact tools he recommended.

There remains a question mark over whether rating agencies will view the deal as a default, having previously said they take a dim view of involving the private sector.

News of the Franco-German deal is likely to ease tensions a little as eurozone leaders today head into what is increasingly being viewed as the most critical meeting since the inception of the euro.

With officials working around the clock on the terms of a second bailout for Greece, German chancellor Angela Merkel has played down expectations that a wide-ranging deal will be reached at an emergency summit on Thursday.

U.S. Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen assumed command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from U.S. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus at a change of command ceremony today, attended by senior Afghan and NATO officials.

The European Commission was quick to issue a critical preliminary statement just after its experts visited Denmark to assess if the introduction of internal border controls by Copenhagen was not infringing EU rules.

"The United Kingdom will not agree to a permanent operational HQ. We will not agree to it now and we will not agree to it in the future. That is a red line," Hague told reporters after a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels.

For now, Lithuania has recalled its ambassador to Vienna "for consultations" and is also raising the issue at an informal meeting of justice ministers in Poland on Tuesday.

Liam Fox, UK defence secretary, asked Leon Panetta, his new US counterpart, for more help with intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and aerial refuelling.

This approach is unsustainable and implies that the individual member states can get out of this crisis simply by imposing austerity. This is clearly not working."

Britain said on Friday it will send four more Tornado warplanes to support the NATO mission in Libya, in addition to the 12 already deployed.

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who met Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Thursday, called on the Netherlands and other members of the alliance to consider their contributions to the mission, stressing the need for air-to-ground strikes.

The draft Tauscher agreement the White House rejected included four elements, including two noncontroversial provisions on confidence-building and transparency.

As Italy struggled to unravel its debt crisis yesterday (14 July), Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti unequivocally compared the euro crisis to the sinking of the Titanic.

Amid a "clear risk" of potentially seismic events in the eurozone and the Arab world in the next six weeks, EU institutions will drop to staff levels of just 20 percent as officials go on holiday, limiting their capacity to react.

With analysts watching every nuance of the EU's response to the crisis, there is fear an 'emergency' summit would make matters worse unless it had a concrete outcome.

US-based credit rating agency Moody's on Tuesday (11 July) downgraded Ireland's debt to junk status, amid growing market concerns about the stability of the eurozone as the debt crisis reaches Italy and Spain.

Leaders of the 17 euro-using countries are expected to meet in Brussels on Friday (15 July) to help calm markets after the results come out of EU 'stress tests' on banks.

Sixty-four percent of Israelis would support a NATO deployment of peacekeeping troops to the West Bank and Gaza, according to a survey published by the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Markets are pummelling the euro as EU finance officials make vague proclamations on strengthening EU bailouts but continue to disagree on the terms of a second Greek rescue plan.

Pressed by Italy's sudden trouble on the markets, eurozone finance ministers on Monday night (11 July) decided to increase the "flexibility and the scope" of the eurozone's bailout fund (EFSF), so far a taboo for Germany and the Netherlands.

She added that she spoke by phone to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Sunday night and that she now had "full confidence" that the government in Rome "will pass exactly this kind of budget".

Reacting to analysts who say Beijing is buying risky bonds in Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain in order to gain political influence in the EU, Song said the purchases have no "suspicious" motives.

Since the architecture for this shield is expected to be finalized at the May 2012 NATO summit in Chicago, Rogozin said that time is running out to determine what role, if any, Russia will play in the system.

In a move similar to the Greek case, the European Central Bank (ECB) on 7 July suspended a minimum rating requirement for Portuguese bonds after one of the major credit rating agencies earlier this week downgraded Portugal to 'junk status'.

Jose Manuel Barroso on 6 July accused American credit rating agency Moody's of being "biased" and "speculative" for downgrading its assessment of Portugal's debt payment capacity.

Credit rating agency Moody's on 5 July downgraded Portugal's debt rating to junk status, a move hinting at market expectations that a second bailout may be needed as in Greece.

Ukraine's EU ambassador has hinted that Kiev is ready to sign a far-reaching pact with the union even if it makes no more concessions on the economy or pro-enlargement wording.

Denmark on Tuesday (5 July) is to deploy 50 customs officials on its borders with Germany and Sweden, but has vowed to respect EU law and not to cause delays for travellers and lorries.

The sovereignty of Greece will be massively limited," Jean-Claude Juncker told Germany's Focus Magazin in an interview published on Sunday (3 July), just hours after the eurozone ministers reached agreement.

The US and Spain said Saturday they won't let Moammar Gadhafi's threats of retaliatory attacks in Europe deter their mission to protect Libyan civilians and force him to leave power after four decades of often unpredictable and sometimes violent rule.

"If they (NATO) do not by the end of the year tell us exactly what they're planning ... we will respond."

NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said there is to be no military intervention in Syria despite similar levels of government-sponsored violence as in Libya.

With Poland taking over the presidency of the European Union on 1 July, EUobserver presents a short non-exhaustive guide.

By seeking to force the removal of nuclear weapons from NATO Europe, they would remove from the new members the symbolic security they once so deeply believed they themselves needed.

Yesterday’s witching hour of the European Union means that Germany has come very close to realising Bismarck’s dream of an economic empire stretching from central Europe to the Eastern Mediterranean.

The Euro-crunch is upon us and Onion leaders face probably the most fateful strategic decision in modern European history – break the Euro up or move to a common fiscal policy, which means the creation of a federal European state.

Only one option can be orderly. Germany and its satellite economies must withdraw from EMU, leaving the Greco-Latin bloc with the residual euro and the institutions of monetary union.

There is real value in having a collective defense organization like NATO that is on our side. But to be of value, NATO must be ready to act, and today its ability to do so is increasingly in doubt.

My conclusion is that the European Idea that was born after World War II has peaked. The European Union is backsliding. Its creative edge is passé.

Spain's leftist government called a snap general election for November, four months earlier than initially scheduled, looking to capitalise on a slight upturn in opinion poll ratings.

The Emerging Security Challenges Division will play its part in contributing to such a new culture of debate. Its Strategic Analysis Capability will scan the strategic horizon for challenges that may affect Allied security.

"The announced EU program along with the Institute of International Finance's statement implies that the probability of a distressed exchange, and hence a default, on Greek government bonds is virtually 100 percent," Moody's said.

Greece is set to lead the eurozone's first-ever default as European leaders agreed that the private holders of Greek debt will take a hit of ?50bn over three years.

There is a popular and wise saying in the West: when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging – in other words, don’t make the situation worse by continuing with the actions.

Secretary General Rasmussen and Minister Gryshchenko welcomed the steady pace of high-level dialogue and expressed their interest in further developing practical cooperation between Ukraine and the Alliance.

Uncertainty over whether the EU will be able to agree the terms of a second bailout for Greece in the coming days rose over the weekend as fundamental differences between key players were highlighted once more.

Ministers meeting in Brussels yesterday (12 July) returned to the drawing board as plans for voluntary rollovers of Greek sovereign debt by the private sector were shot down for fear that this would spark default and market panic.

NATO is in desperate need of reform, to be sure. But NATO is needed.

Top eurozone officials are meeting on Monday (11 July) morning to discuss the debt crisis in the 17-nation single currency region amid concerns that it could spread to Italy.

"I am against any barriers to internal free movement under the pretext of dealing with migration problems. What Denmark is doing is a concern for anybody who thinks that free movement is going to be restricted even further," Tusk told MEPs in Strasbourg.

Russia has said it needs guarantees that the NATO missile defence is not threatening Russia. Let me assure you. We are not threatening Russia. Our missile defence is defensive in nature.

The financial crisis and Arab Spring migrants have given rise to a "new euroscepticism" inside the union, Polish leader Donald Tusk has warned as Poland takes over the EU presidency.