BERLIN (AFP) - A young Turk was jailed yesterday for gunning down his sister at a Berlin bus stop in a so-called honor killing that sparked angry calls for better integration of Muslim immigrants. Ayhan Surucu, who was 18 at the time of the murder last year, was sentenced to nine years and three months by a Berlin court. Two other brothers were acquitted due to lack of evidence, drawing cheers from friends and family in the courtroom. “This vivacious young woman fell victim because she lived her life as she saw fit — for that she was shot and killed by her brother right among us,” presiding judge Michael Degreif said of “the execution-style killing” of 23-year-old Hatun Surucu.

SOFIA (AP) - The European Union’s enlargement official warned yesterday the bloc was still waiting for Bulgaria to show concrete results in fighting corruption and crime — which if unsolved could delay the Balkan country’s entry into the union. Olli Rehn, who arrived on a brief visit to Sofia, refused to take a firm stand as to whether Bulgaria will join as scheduled on January 1 or would have its entry delayed by a year. “There are still serious concerns as regards the rule of law and its functioning in the country,” Rehn said in a statement after meeting Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev. He refused to take any questions, saying a complete assessment would be provided only in the European Commission report due May 16.

Turkey’s energy minister met with national industry leaders yesterday to plan joint financing by the government and the private sector for Turkey’s first nuclear power station. “Turkey will definitely construct a nuclear power plant,” Energy Minister Hilmi Guler said. He said the meeting yesterday was to “talk about the rules of the game with the people who will do this.” The meeting follows an announcement by the head of the national atomic energy institute that Turkey’s prime minister chose Sinop, a port city on the Black Sea, for the construction of the country’s first nuclear power plant. He said plans were being drafted for a full nuclear technology center in Sinop. “This is not just a matter of creating a nuclear power station, this is a project to lay the groundwork for a nuclear technology center,” Guler said. (AP)

A court in northern Turkey yesterday handed down a suspended sentence of 14 months in jail to a left-wing activist for hurling an egg at Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the all-news CNN Turk channel reported. The court in the Black Sea city of Trabzon ruled that the defendant committed the offense of “insulting the prime minister,” but decided to suspend the sentence because he had no earlier criminal record and displayed good conduct in court. Two protesters shouted anti-government slogans and hurled an egg at Erdogan, which missed its target, while the prime minister was making a speech at the inauguration ceremony of a highway in Trabzon in June 2005. (AFP)