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The young physics student, Ahmet Yildiz, was one of the few openly gay men in Turkey, a country in which the military, the guardian of Turkey's secular state, regards homosexuality as a disorder.
Yildiz represented his country at a gay meeting in San Francisco and wrote for gay publications in Turkey. Observers believe his activism is probably what got him killed.
His boyfriend, Ibrahim Can, was in their shared apartment when Yildiz was murdered.
He wanted to go out and buy some ice cream, he went down and just got into his car and I heard gunshots, he says. I looked down from the window I saw him being ambushed. He says he ran outside and screamed "Please do not die." Can said his eyes were closed, when I shouted he opened for a second, he looked at me and then closed his eyes.
Can says before the shooting, Yildiz had repeatedly filed complaints at the local prosecutor's office that he was receiving death threats from his family. Gay rights groups claim the prosecutor's office did not investigate or provide Yildiz with protection.
The story was largely ignored until it starting getting attention by the foreign media. What resulted was a bout of national soul-searching underlining the tensions between the secular modern Turkey and a more traditionalist Turkey, in which conservative Islam increasingly holds power.
Oner Ceylan of Istanbul's gay rights group Lambda says it's a landmark case.
"I think it is important that people, that this fact, that a father can kill his son, simply because of his sexual orientation. That is an important awareness, because maybe they were cases before, but we just did not know," said Ceylan. "We read in the news maybe a father killed, but we did not know why before. So I think its a very important step."
Yildiz's father is on the run and believed to be in hiding outside Turkey. As a result, the trial that began in September is on hold.
While Turkey's aspiration to join the European Union is pushing the Muslim-rooted government to increase civil liberties for women and homosexuals, some remain nervous with a permissive attitude toward sexuality and gender roles.
Scott Long of the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch says reluctance by the authorities to punish violence against the gay community is not unusual.
"People who express their sexuality, people who differ from these cultural norms, from masculinity and femininity, are abused, are beaten, are raped, are excluded from the family," said Long. "That there is violence at every level and most conspicuously that the government does not intervene to stop it."
The country's growing lesbian, gay and transgender movement is increasingly challenging violence against them.
Ceylan says its a long struggle, but education and patience are key.
"When you talk about violence people do not really exactly know what are you talking about. When you have the incidents, the cases and everything, then it more clear to them that inevitably there have been some human-rights violations. And with the police we have been trying to communicate with the city government, because the police reports to them," he said. "I think we are making some progress, but these things are deep-rooted, so you cannot expect things to be just great within years or decades."
The Yildiz murder has become an focal point for gays around the world to put pressure on Turkish authorities for change.
This video entitled "Ahmet Is Part Of My Family", is circulating the Internet as part of a campaign by gays around the world to protest the Yildiz murder. Yildiz'z boyfriend, Can say he hopes the legal proceedings will not only put Yildiz's murderer on trial, but put Turkey's treatment of gays on trial, too.
I hope this court case will reveal the situation of homosexuals in Turkey to the whole world, he says. He says there are millions of gays living in Turkey, most hidden, some forced to marry women, some willingly married just to avoid loosing their respectability. He says he hopes the case will change attitudes.
A recent government study estimated one person dies every week in Istanbul as a result of honor killings. The victims are mostly young women, murdered by male relatives for such things as having illicit affairs, talking to strangers or even for being the victim of rape. Because gay honor killings remain underground, it is not known how many of those happen on a weekly basis.
Although President Obama has yet to detail his Russia policy, the Kremlin says it is receiving positive signals from his administration about the prospects for resetting the relationship between Moscow and Washington. But Russian civic activists are concerned Mr. Obama may pursue pragmatic policies that could advance bilateral interests, but not the principles of democracy in their country.
In May, President Obama told visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov the United States and Russia have an excellent opportunity to reset the bilateral relationship on many issues. "…from nuclear weapons and nuclear proliferation; the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan; how we approach Iran; how we approach the Middle East; commercial ties between the two countries; and, how we address the financial crisis that has put such a strain on the economies of all countries around the world."
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Pope Benedict XVI says bone fragments found in a tomb beneath the floor of Rome's Basilica of St. Paul Outside-The-Walls are probably remains of the Apostle Paul.
The pontiff announced Sunday that carbon dating tests run on the fragments, which were found inside a stone sarcophagus discovered beneath the floor of the basilica, confirm that they date from first or second century.
"This seems to confirm the unanimous and uncontested tradition that they are the mortal remains of the Apostle Paul," Benedict said, speaking Sunday at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-The-Walls.
Christians have traditionally believed St. Paul was buried beneath the main altar of the basilica, which was built in the late fourth century. The 8-foot-long sarcophagus containing the bone fragments was discovered in 2002.
The people of Albania are going to the polls in parliamentary elections that are seen as a key test for the Balkan country's ambition to join the European Union.
Western observers are closely monitoring Sunday's parliamentary elections in Albania to see whether one of Europe's poorest countries has enough democratic credentials to join the European Union.
The ballot, which includes as front-runners for prime minister a dominant post-communist era-leader and a Socialist, is Albania's seventh parliamentary election since Communism collapsed in 1990,
But none of the previous votes met international standards amid reported fraud and other irregularities.
The campaign for Sunday's elections was marred by violence as three people, including politicians, were killed in what local media have called "politically motivated attacks".
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The lower house of the Czech Parliament voted 101 to 96 to declare no confidence in the coalition government of Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, after four lawmakers broke rank with their parties and voted with the opposition. Three legislators were absent from the vote.
It is the first time a government is ousted since the country came to existence, after the breakup of the former Czechoslovakia in 1993.
The vote was seen as a major setback for Mr. Topolanek as it came just days before a planned visit by United States President Barack Obama and midway through the rotation of the Czech Republic's European Union presidency.
Prime Minister Topolanek told reporters that he could resign Thursday, after talks with European Union officials.
He says he flies to Strasbourg on Wednesday, and after the trip he will hand in his resignation to President Vaclav Klaus according to the constitution. He admits that the new situation, in his words, "can complicate the Czech government's negotiating strength in the EU." Yet, he says, he is convinced that the Czech Republic can cope with these difficulties.
Prime Minister Topolanek said he believes the president might ask him again to form a government, as his party won most votes in the 2006 elections.
However he made clear he prefers holding elections early, rather than in June 2010 as scheduled.
In a first reaction the EU's executive branch, the European Commission, said it was confident the Czech Republic could continue to "effectively preside over the European Union" despite the government losing a no-confidence vote in Prague.
Tuesday's vote of no confidence came after the opposition said the government came to late with a stimulus package of over three billion dollars to boost the ailing economy of this Eastern European nation.
The Czech Republic is among several former communist countries in Europe that suffer under the weight of the global financial crisis.
In addition the prime minister has been criticized for supporting a controversial anti-missile defense system that the United States considers building in the Czech Republic and Poland.
Washington says the system is aimed at undermining missile strikes from countries such as Iran and North Korea. Yet, the Czech opposition fears it will further destabilize Europe.
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