Oscar Pistorius: Grief of Girlfriend's Mother

The mother of Reeva Steenkamp, who was allegedly murdered by boyfriend Oscar Pistorius, has asked: "Why my little girl?"

Speaking out for the first time about the death of her 29-year-old daughter, June Steenkamp told the Times of South Africa: "She had so much of herself to give and now all that is gone - just like that, she is gone.

"In the blink of an eye and a single breath, the most beautiful person who ever lived is no longer here.

"All we have is this horrendous death to deal with ... to get to grips with.

"All we want are answers ... answers as to why this had to happen, why our beautiful daughter had to die like this."

She said: "Why my little girl? Why did this happen? Why did he do this?"

Gold medal-winning Paralympian Pistorius was arrested and charged last Thursday with the premeditated murder of Miss Steenkamp, a model who he had been dating since November.

Oscar Pistorius had been dating Reeva Steenkamp since November

Miss Steenkamp's father Barry said on Sunday he did not hate Pistorius following his arrest.

More than 100 people are expected to attend an hour-long memorial service for the law graduate on Tuesday.

She will be cremated in her home town of Port Elizabeth, in a private ceremony for family and friends.

Well-wishers have already begun placing bouquets of flowers outside the family home.

Thousands of people saw her appear in a TV programme on Saturday night after her family said they wanted the broadcast to go ahead.

There had been controversy over the airing of Tropika Island of Treasure as Miss Steenkamp talked about how making the right 'exit' was important.

The broadcast went ahead after the programme makers said they had been told that the family wanted it to be shown.

Her uncle Mike Steenkamp said the family had been overwhelmed with offers of help.

Police have said Miss Steenkamp was shot four times in the early hours of Thursday by a pistol owned by Pistorius and died of her wounds at the scene.

His family has insisted that the evidence will refute "any possibility of a premeditated murder or indeed any murder at all".

Pistorius, 26, who broke down sobbing in his first court appearance on Friday, has built up a powerful team of lawyers, medical specialists and public relations experts for his defence.

Stuart Higgins, a former editor of The Sun newspaper, whose lengthy list of clients includes British Airways, Chelsea FC and Manchester United football club, will be handling Pistorius' public relations.

14.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

South Africa: Shooting At Anglo American Mine

At least 13 workers have been wounded by machetes and rubber bullets in the latest wave of violence to hit a South African mine.

Police said the attacks at the Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) site in Rustenburg were provoked by a dispute between two rival unions.

The news agency Reuters said around 1,000 members of the Association for Mineworkers and Construction Union gathered at the mine, about 70 miles northwest of Johannesburg, after four people believed to belong to the National Union of Mineworkers tried to occupy an office.

Security guards at the mine used rubber bullets to disperse the rival groups.

Machetes were seen during separate disputes in the country in 2012

A police spokesman said the 13 injured workers were admitted to hospital.

Anglo American, which owns the mine and is listed on the London Stock Exchange, saw a 2.75% fall in its share price on the FTSE 100 when news of the trouble emerged.

The violence follows a two-month illegal strike at the same site last autumn, when police fired rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades to separate groups of workers.

The continuing dispute is related to anger over Amplats' plans to lay off an additional 14,000 workers amid poor company results which showed a loss of $225m (£143m) for 2012.

It is among several mining companies in South Africa grappling with higher expenses amid the worst industrial action the country has seen for decades.

14.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Oscar Pistorius Sobbing During Bail Hearing

Oscar Pistorius has broken down in tears during his bail hearing after being charged with murdering his girlfriend.

The 26-year-old Paralympian is accused of killing model Reeva Steenkamp, 29, in the early hours of last Thursday.

Police said she was shot four times with a pistol owned by Pistorius at his home in South Africa. Hundreds are expected to attend her funeral in Port Elizabeth this morning.

In the courtroom in Pretoria, Sky's Alex Crawford said his "face was creased in pain" and he was "weeping" as the prosecutor outlined the case against him.

For the first time, Pistorius is expected to explain how his girlfriend died during the hearing.

Crawford said his defence team will detail why he should be given bail, arguing that he is not danger to society or himself and is not going to abscond.

More follows...

14.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

British Worker Feared Kidnapped In Nigeria

Gunmen in northern Nigeria have kidnapped a group of foreign workers including one Briton, according to local authorities there.

The group attacked a construction company camp, killing a guard and then abducting seven foreigners, police said.

"From the report we have received, the hostages are seven in all. They include four Lebanese, an Italian, a Briton and a Greek," Bauchi state police spokesman Hassan Auyo said.

This would make it the biggest kidnapping yet in a region that is under attack from Islamic extremists.

Greece, Lebanon and Italy have all said their citizens are involved. However, Britain's Foreign Office has not confirmed if a Briton is among them.

The kidnapping on Saturday night happened in Jama'are, a town in a rural portion of Bauchi state.

The gunmen attacked a local prison first, burning two police trucks, another Bauchi state police spokesman, Hassan Muhammed told the Associated Press.

Then they targeted a workers' camp for a construction company called Setraco, which is in the area building a road, Mr Muhammed said.

The gunmen shot dead a guard at the camp before kidnapping the foreign workers, he added.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office in Britain said: "We are aware of the reports and are making inquiries with local authorities."

Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north has been under attack by the radical Islamic sect known as Boko Haram in the last year and a half.

The country's weak central government has been unable to stop the group's bloody guerrilla campaign of shootings and bombings.

The sect is blamed for killing at least 729 people in 2012 alone, according to an AP count.

Foreigners have been frequently abducted by militant groups and criminal gangs for ransom in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta and have become increasingly targeted in Nigeria's north as the violence has grown.

Sky News Special Correspondent Alex Crawford said: "Nigeria, particularly the north of Nigeria, has got a big problem. It's the scourge of the country and has been for many years now.

"Local Islamist groups called Boko Haram have been largely responsible for carrying out the kidnappings.

"This is one of the militant groups who have operating inside Mali. They are one of five extremist groups who are believed to have been running operations inside Mali and around the Sahel."

Gunmen who authorities say have links to Boko Haram also kidnapped an Italian and a British man last year in northern Kebbi State.

They were later killed during a rescue operation by Nigerian soldiers backed up by British special forces. The sect later denied taking part in that abduction.

Chinese construction workers have also been killed by gunmen around Maiduguri, the northeastern city in Nigeria where Boko Haram first began.

Setraco Nigeria, a construction and civil engineering company, is a subsidiary of Setraco International Holding group.

The Nigerian company, which was established in 1977, is currently working on expanding a major road in the north of the country.

14.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Mindy McCready Dies In Apparent Suicide

Country singer Mindy McCready has been found dead with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, US authorities have said.

Cleburne County Sheriff's Office, in Arkansas, said McCready, 37, was found dead on Sunday afternoon with what appeared to be a single wound.

She was found on the front porch of a home.

McCready hit the top of the country charts before personal problems sidetracked her career.

In 1996, her song Guys Do It All the Time rose to No 1 in the country charts.

Her live-in boyfriend David Wilson was found shot dead in their home on January 13 and police said the case was suspicious.

She later appeared on television to deny she had played any role in the shooting.

Her death comes only days after she was released from rehab.

14.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Breastfeeding Could Save 95 Babies Every Hour

The lives of 95 babies could be saved every hour if mothers started breastfeeding their newborns in the hour after their birth, a charity has said.

Receiving a mother's first milk within an hour will kickstart the child's immune system, making a newborn three times more likely to survive, according to a report by Save the Children.

If the mother continues feeding for the next six months, then a child growing up in the developing world is up to 15 times less likely to die from killer diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhoea, the report said.

According to the charity, there has been enormous progress in reducing child mortality, but more could be done if mothers were encouraged to breastfeed.

"Despite the benefits of breastfeeding being widely known in the developed world, and it being a free, natural way to protect a newborn baby, too little attention is being paid to help mums breastfeed in poorer countries," said Justin Forsyth, Save the Children's chief executive.

"If every baby was fed during the first hour of life – what we call the 'power hour' - we estimate that up to 830,000 newborn deaths could be prevented every year - that's 95 babies every hour."

Breastfeeding rates are declining across East Asia and in some of Africa's most populous countries such as Ethiopia and Nigeria, according to the report, called Superfood For Babies.

Australian actress Isla Fisher is an ambassador for Save the Children

The charity cites as factors a lack of empowerment and education for women, severe shortages of midwives and health workers in the developing world, and lack of adequate maternity legislation.

It also cites "inappropriate" marketing techniques by some baby milk substitute companies leading mothers to believe formula is the best way to feed their babies.

Save the Children's new ambassador, actress Isla Fisher, recently visited Brazil as part of the organisation's campaign.

The charity is calling on the UK Government to use its G8 presidency to fund nutrition work with breastfeeding and on other donor countries to step up their funding.

"This year's G8 - with the UK in the driving seat - is a once in a lifetime opportunity to focus effort on a final push to end hunger," said Mr Forsyth.

14.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Pakistan: Dozens Killed In Market Bomb Blast

A bomb blast has ripped through a crowded market in southern Pakistan, killing at least 64 people and wounding 180 others.

The blast left many victims buried under rubble. Police said many of those wounded in the explosion in Quetta remain in critical condition.

Senior police officer Wazir Khan Nasir said the bomb, set off in a residential suburb, was detonated by remote control.

Another officer, Samiullah Khan, said police were investigating whether the bomb was planted in a rickshaw parked in the crowded vegetable market.

He said the device was detonated while dozens of women and children were shopping.

Local residents rushed the victims to three different area hospitals.

The attack was the deadliest since bomb blasts in the same city killed 86 people in January and led to protests that eventually toppled the local government.

Shiites, a minority in the Sunni Muslim-dominated country, have been increasingly attacked by militant groups who view them as heretics and non-Muslims.

Most of the Shiites in the area are Hazaras, an ethnic group who migrated from Afghanistan over 100 years ago.

In recent years the Shiites have come under renewed attack, mostly at the hands of Laskher-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni militant group.

"This evil force is operating with the patronage of certain elements in the province," said Qayum Changezi, the chairman of a local Hazara organization.

After days of protests following the January attack, Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf flew to the city to meet with protesters and sacked the chief minister and his cabinet.

14.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Meteor: Rescue Teams Rally To Recovery Effort

A major recovery effort is under way to replace thousands of windows shattered by the shockwave from a meteor that exploded over Russia, as some 24,000 workers began arriving in the Chelyabinsk region to help relief efforts.

The shockwave blew out glass in more than 4,000 buildings in the region and injured about 1,200 people, largely with cuts from the flying debris.

Forty of those injured remained in hospital on Saturday, two of them in a serious condition, the state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

Regional governor Mikhail Yurevich said the damage from the high-altitude explosion - which was estimated to have been as powerful as 20 Hiroshima bombs - is estimated at 1bn rubles (£21m).

A man repairs the window of a damaged sports hall in Chelyabinsk

He promised to have the 200,000 square metres of broken windows replaced within a week.

Rescuers are also scouring the bottom of a lake for the remains of the meteor, which plunged to Earth in a fireball on Friday.

Part of the space rock, which was the size of a bus and blazed across western Siberia, is believed to have landed in the frozen Lake Chebarkul.

Curious onlookers gathered nearby were prevented from venturing out on to the lake by police as the search continued.

More than 24,000 rescuers and recovery workers have already been dispatched to the region around Chelyabinsk to help residents.

Workers in Chelyabinsk examine the damage to a large building

The workers will gather warm clothes and food, cover windows, and make other relief efforts. Crews from glass companies in adjacent regions have also begun to arrive.

Experts are also examining major buildings in case they have been structurally damaged by the blast.

Residents who had poured into the streets to watch the light show after spotting the initial flash were wounded by glass shattered by the subsequent sonic boom.

Experts said the meteor strike was the largest recorded in more than a century.

The meteor burned brightly in the sky as it plunged to Earth

As the recovery mission begins in earnest, the emergencies ministry said six divers would be inspecting the lake for any pieces of meteorite.

Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov added: "We have a special team working ... that is now assessing the seismic stability of buildings. We will be especially careful about switching the gas back on."

Scientists will be desperate to examine the rock for any clues about the cosmos but Mr Puchkov said no fragments had yet been discovered.

The explosion appears to have been one of the most stunning cosmic events over Russia since 1908, when an asteroid was blamed for a massive blast in Siberia.

Nasa estimated that the amount of energy released when the meteor crashed into the Earth's atmosphere was about 20 times more than the force of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb.                 

The meteor hit in the Urals on Friday morning

"We would expect an event of this magnitude to occur once every 100 years on average," said Paul Chodas of Nasa's Near-Earth Object Programme Office.

The drama happened just hours before an asteroid whizzed safely past the Earth at an unprecedented distance of 17,200 miles.

This is closer than some distant satellites and set alarm bells ringing in some Russian circles about the need for joint global action to protect Earth from space.

The Russian parliament's foreign affairs committee chief Alexei Pushkov wrote on Twitter: "Instead of fighting on Earth, people should be creating a joint system of asteroid defence."

14.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Pistorius: Girlfriend's TV Show Goes Ahead

A reality show featuring the dead girlfriend of Oscar Pistorius has aired, as his family says the paralympian is numb with grief over her death.

Tropika Island of Treasure, showing Reeva Steenkamp on location in Jamaica last year, was broadcast on Saturday night despite her shocking death on St Valentine's Day.

Miss Steenkamp, who had been going out with Pistorius since November, was shot four times at his house in a heavily guarded complex in Pretoria on Thursday.

Local media have reported that she was shot through a bathroom door. A 9mm pistol was found at the scene.

Pistorius broke down in court at the mention of premeditated murder

The decision to air the show emerged as Pistorius' uncle said the athlete was "numb with shock, as well as grief" as he remained in custody facing charges of premeditated murder.

In the family's first public comments since the shooting, Arnold Pistorius said they were "in total shock" by what he called an "unimaginable human tragedy".

Tropika Island of Treasure producers said Miss Steenkamp's family wanted her appearance on the reality show for South Africa's national broadcaster to be aired as a tribute.

Before the programme aired a poignant pre-recorded interview with Miss Steenkamp was released in which the 29-year-old talked about the importance of leaving a positive mark in life.

Pistorius (right) after his arrest on Thursday

"I think the way that you go out, not just your journey in life, but the way that you go out and the way you make your exit is so important," Miss Steenkamp said in the video.

"You either made an impact in a positive or a negative way, but just maintain integrity and maintain class and just remain true to yourself.

"I'm going to miss you all so much and I love you very, very much."

Tropika Island of Treasure sees celebrities paired with contestants and put through a series of challenges as they compete for a cash prize.

Executive producer Samantha Moon said: "This is how they want to remember her. This is what she would have wanted. She was happy, healthy, beautiful and vibrant and that's the way she should be remembered."

Spokesman for broadcaster SABA, Kaizer Kganyago, said: "The mother agreed that we should go ahead and we are free to go ahead. We are working on how to pay tribute to her."

Miss Steenkamp's cousin, Sharon Steenkamp, said she "was proud of being in the show".

"Her last words to us personally was that she wants us to watch it," she said.

Reeva Steenkamp, 29, with Pistorius last November

Production company Stimulii said it was "devastated" by the model's death and described her as a "wonderful human being" with a "zest for life".

Pistorius, who made history by competing in both the Olympics and Paralympics last year, sobbed through his first court appearance on Friday.

He is being held in a police cell ahead of a new hearing on February 19, when prosecutors are set to oppose any request for bail.

The chief magistrate delayed the bail hearing until next week at the request of the defence, who asked for more time.

A statement issued by Pistorius' family and management following the initial hearing said: "The alleged murder is disputed in the strongest terms."

And in Saturday's statement, Arnold Pistorius insisted there was "no substance" to the allegation of premeditated murder "or indeed any murder at all" as he spoke of his nephew's happiness with the model and rising star.

"They had plans together and Oscar was happier in his private life than he had been for a long time," he told the Associated Press.

"Words cannot adequately describe our feelings. The lives of our entire family have been turned upside down forever by this unimaginable human tragedy and Reeva's family have suffered a terrible loss.

"As a family we are trying to be strong and supportive to Oscar as any close family would be in these dreadful circumstances.

"We deeply regret the allegation of premeditated murder. We have no doubt there is no substance to the allegation and that the State's own case, including its own forensic evidence, strongly refutes any possibility of a premeditated murder or indeed any murder at all."

Premeditated murder carries a mandatory life sentence in South Africa. If found guilty, Pistorius would not be eligible for parole for 25 years.

14.59 | 0 komentar | Read More

Fugitive Cop Died Of 'Self-Inflicted' Gunshot

Christopher Dorner, who began a retribution campaign against his Los Angeles police colleagues, died of a single gunshot wound, a coroner has said.

The fugitive officer's charred remains were found in a burned-out California mountain cabin after a "war-zone style" standoff with armed police.

Dorner declared 'war' on his colleagues in an online manifesto

Coroner examiners have yet to determine who fired the fatal shot that killed Dorner, though San Bernardino County Coroner Kevin Lacy said current evidence suggests the 33-year-old committed suicide.

"We are not yet able to speak about the manner of death and tell you whether or not it was the result of a self-inflicted wound or another round," he said at a news conference.

But he added: "The information we have seems to indicate that the wound that took Christopher Dorner's life was self-inflicted."

The ex-LAPD cop went on the run last week after allegedly killing a couple and a policeman, and wounding three people.

Another police officer was killed and one wounded before the cabin in which Dorner was holed-up went up in flames.

Officials also said at the news conference that they had found a cache of weapons at various sites connected with Dorner.

Dorner had posted online a chilling manifesto in which he threatened to bring "warfare" to LAPD officers and their families, and blamed the LAPD for treating him unfairly in his sacking in 2008.

The six-day manhunt reached a climax on Tuesday when Dorner barricaded himself inside the cabin.

The charred remains of the mountain cabin

San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon said there was a prolonged firefight with Dorner.

He said when "other means had been exhausted", SWAT officers used a tractor-type device to open up the windows and walls of the cabin, and threw in pyrotechnic tear gas canisters to try to force Dorner to surrender.

A blaze erupted, starting at one corner of the cabin.

Sheriff McMahon said that as the flames took hold, after a period of no firing, there was "a distinct single gunshot coming from inside the house".

The sound of it "indicated to me (that) a different kind of weapon had been fired," he added.

14.59 | 0 komentar | Read More