ANKARA (AP) - Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday returned a diamond necklace that was given to his wife as a gift, sparking sharp public criticism. Emine Erdogan was given the necklace and a pin by a Turkish jewelry company during a trip last week to Moscow. Her acceptance quickly made the front pages of Turkish newspapers, many of which criticized her for accepting the necklace and demanded that it be returned. Newspapers have claimed that the necklace was worth some $30,000 (23,000 euros), but Erdogan has said the issue was blown out of proportion and the necklace was worth only around $10,000 (7,700 euros).

BELGRADE (AP) - Local ethnic Albanian leaders in Serbia’s restive south met yesterday to discuss increased tensions in the region following the killing this month of a teenager by a border guard. The meeting at the town hall in Presevo, some 300 kilometers (180 miles) southeast of Belgrade, was attended by Belgrade officials, representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and US diplomats.

Groups representing people who fought in the 1989 uprising which toppled Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu called on President Traian Basescu to dismiss officials who fought to suppress the protesters. The groups released what it called “the list of shame” at a news conference. The list includes former President Ion Iliescu, Romania’s military Chief of Staff Eugen Badalan and Basescu’s top military adviser, Constantin Degeratu. Two high-level police officials are also on the list. Badalan and Degeratu have denied the charges. (AP)

A nuclear power plant in southeastern Romania was shut down yesterday for minor repairs, the government said. The plant in Cernavoda stopped functioning early in the day after the minor malfunction of a valve, and will be restarted late today, the Ministry of Economy and Trade said. “The population, environment and personnel were not affected as there were no radioactive leaks,” the ministry said. (AP)

Former Bosnian-Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was an upstart who used war to get rich, his ally, convicted war criminal Biljana Plavsic, writes in the first chronicle by a wartime Bosnian-Serb leader. “Once I asked him openly if people in the leadership were involved in profiteering, and he said, ‘Well, one has to make a living somehow,’” writes Plavsic, a Karadzic deputy known as “Bosnia’s Iron Lady.” (Reuters)