On January 19th, Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink (that's him in the photo at right), who wrote extensively about the Armenian genocide of 1915-1917, was shot dead outside his office in Istanbul, allegedly by Ogün Samast, an ultra-nationalist Turk. Pictures of Samast holding up a Turkish flag, flanked by smiling Turkish police and gendarmerie officers, have triggered a wave of investigations and the removal from office of those involved. Samast is now in custody.Jurists in The Hague ruled that a genocide occurred when Bosnian Serbs massacred Bosnian Muslims at Srebrinca in 1995. Serbia, said the court, was responsible for not preventing the genocide--but not directly responsible for the genocide itself--and is thus absolved of any obligation to pay reparations. According to the BBC , at least 100,000 people died in the 1992-1995 war, triggered by an effort by Bosnia's Muslims and Croats to cut ties with Belgrade, a move opposed by Bosnian Serbs.
In March, a new French law made it a crime--punishable by up to five years in prison--for anyone who is not a professional journalist to film real-world violence and put the images on the Internet.
