MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia has offered to construct Turkey’s first-ever nuclear power stations, the Russian state monopoly Atomstroiexport said in a statement yesterday. Atomstroiexport said the offer was made during a meeting of the Russian-Turkish energy working group last week in Moscow. Turkish representatives told their Russian counterparts they could “invest in Turkish energy under Turkish legislation,” according to Atomstroiexport, which runs all of Russia’s foreign power station projects.

ISTANBUL (AP) - An Armenian-Turkish newspaper editor entered an Istanbul court yesterday to shouts of “traitor,” beginning the latest of his many legal battles. Prosecutors have charged that Hrant Dink, a Turkish citizen, committed the crime of “attempting to influence the judiciary” when his bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper ran articles criticizing a law that makes it a crime to “insult Turkishness.” Three other writers at the Agos newspaper, including Dink’s son, also went on trial yesterday.

Bulgaria has removed a ban on open live bird markets, saying the threat of migratory birds bringing avian flu back to the Balkan state appears to have passed, an official said yesterday. The move comes despite a new outbreak in Bulgaria’s northern neighbor Romania, which said on Monday it would cull some 1 million domestic birds to prevent the virus from spreading. (Reuters)

Albanian President Alfred Moisiu expressed concern yesterday that the country’s political parties would not complete electoral reform in time for the local government polls. In a public letter sent to the political groupings, Moisiu said no concrete steps have been taken to correct mistakes noted in last year’s general elections. (AP)

A US air force unit will hold a joint exercise next month in Bulgaria, the Defense Ministry announced in a statement yesterday. The exercise will take place June 2-16, at the Graf Ignatievo air base, 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of the capital, Sofia. US Air Forces in Europe, represented by Oregon Air National Guards’ 173rd Fighter Wing, will conduct the joint air-to-air exercise with Bulgarian Air Force units, the report said. (AP)