ANKARA (AFP) - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday urged the often heavy-handed Turkish police to respect civil liberties, warning that the EU was closely watching the country as it bids for membership in the bloc, the Anatolia news agency reported. “At a time when Turkey has entered a period crucial for its EU objective and when all attention, be it well-intended or not, is on us, I’m calling especially on each member of the security establishment, on each citizen, to contribute more to peace in the country,” Erdogan told a police gathering. His appeal came after harsh EU criticism of police beatings at a women’s demonstration in Istanbul last month.

PODGORICA (AP) - Montenegro’s government is looking to lease the exclusive Sveti Stefan resort on the Adriatic Sea, a former summer mecca for Hollywood stars that has fallen into decline since the Balkan wars of the 1990s. Tourist Minister Predrag Nenezic on Saturday said the government was offering a 20-30 year lease on the resort to “bring in investors” to the cash-strapped republic and planned to officially launch the tender by the end of the month. “The government is unhappy with the way things now are at Sveti Stefan,” Nenezic told Montenegro’s private IN Television, without elaborating.

An Italian tourist who was attacked by robbers in the Croatian tourist resort of Opatija died yesterday after 10 days in a coma, national radio reported. Bruna Falezza, 71, died in a hospital in the nearby Adriatic port of Rijeka where she was being treated after heavy injuries sustained when a robber pushed her down the stairs in front of a hotel in Opatija on March 30. (AFP)

Two marked UN cars were set on fire by unknown suspects in Kosovo, police said yesterday. The vehicles were in different locations when they were set ablaze Saturday night, the police said. One of the fires was put out by a UN policeman. (AP)

Albania began its fifth troop rotation in Iraq yesterday, sending an army contingent to replace soldiers who had been there since October, the Defense Ministry said. The special army unit, which the government decided in February to increase from 71 to 120, flew to Iraq to serve in a six-month mission under US-led command. The Albanian forces are serving in a non-combat role, mainly patrolling the airport in the city of Mosul. (AP)