Gov't must pay for journalist's death

Turkey (AP):

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled Turkey must pay about $170,000 (€133,000) to the family of slain ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

The court's verdict yesterday says it awarded the compensation for the state's failure to protect Dink's life despite the threat of an assassination, for lack of respect for his freedom of expression, and for failure to conduct a thorough investigation into the murder. Turkey had no immediate reaction.

Dink had angered Turkish nationalists with assertions that the mass killings of Armenians around the time of World War I constituted genocide. He was shot by an alleged radical nationalist outside his Istanbul office in January 2007. The gunman and several others have gone on trial for his death.