Oscar Pistorius Granted Bail in Murder Case

Oscar Pistorius was granted bail today in a South African court, meaning he can be released from jail for the six to eight months before his trial for the allegedly premeditated killing of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Magistrate Desmond Nair, in reading his lengthy decision, said, "The issue before me is whether this accused, being who is and the assets he has [here], would seek to duck and dive all over the world."
His conclusion:
"I cannot find that he is a flight risk."

Nair said, "The accused has made a case to be released on bail."

The judge also said he had to weigh whether Pistorius would be a danger to others. He noted that Pistorius has been accused of using foul language against people in arguments and once threatened to break someone's legs, but he said that was different from someone with an arrest record of violence.

"I appreciate that a person is dead, but I don't think that is enough," he said.

Nair also said he could not be influenced by the public's "shock and outrage" if Pistorius is released.

The judge's ruling came on the fourth and final day of the bail hearing for Pistorius, the Olympian accused of murdering his girlfriend on Valentine's Day.

Pistorius, who gained global acclaim for racing at the 2012 London Olympics, shot his model-girlfriend through a closed bathroom. He says he killed Reeva Steenkamp accidentally, but prosecutors alleged that he took a moment to put on his prosthetic legs, indicating that he thought out and planned to kill Steenkamp when he shot her three times through the bathroom door.

Alexander Joe/AFP/Getty Images

'Blade Runner' Shocker: Lead Detective Replaced Watch Video

Oscar Pistorius: Detective Facing Attempted Murder Charges Watch Video

Pistorius sobbed today in court. Barry Roux, his defense attorney, said the prosecution misinterpreted the assigning of intent, meaning that the runner's intent to shoot at a supposed intruder in his home cannot be transferred to someone else who was shot -- in this case, Steenkamp.

"He did not want to kill Reeva," Roux told the court.

PHOTOS: Paralympics Champion Charged in Killing

When Magistrate Nair, who overheard the bail hearing, asked Roux what the charges should be if Pistorius intended to kill an intruder, the defense attorney responded that he should be charged with culpable homicide.

Culpable homicide is defined in South Africa as "the unlawful negligent killing of a human being."

Roux also made light of the prosecution's argument that Pistorius is a flight risk, saying that every time the double-amputee goes through airport security, it causes a commotion. He said that Pistorius' legs need constant maintenance and he needs medical attention for his stumps.

The prosecution argued today that the onus was on Pistorius to provide his version of events, and his version was improbable.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel also spoke of Pistorius' fame and his disability, even relating him to Wikipedia founder Julian Assange, who is now confined to Ecuador's London Embassy, where he has been granted political asylum.
"[Assange's] facial features are as well known as Mr. Pistorius' prostheses," Nel said.

Nel argued that Pistorius' prostheses do not set him apart, stating that it's no different to any other feature, and the court cannot be seen to treat people with disabilities accused of a crime, or famous people accused of crime, any differently.

Pistorius has said that in the early hours of Feb. 14 he was closing his balcony doors when he heard a noise from the bathroom. Fearing an intruder, and without his prosthetic legs on, he grabbed a gun from under his bed and fired through the closed bathroom door, he told the court.

But prosecutors say that's implausible, that the gun's holster was found under the side of the bed where Steenkamp slept, and that Pistorius would have seen she wasn't there. Prosecutors also say the angle at which the shots were fired shows Pistorius was already wearing his prosthetics when he fired.

FULL COVERAGE: Oscar Pistorius Case

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Spinning camera gives a ball's-eye view of the game

Hal Hodson, technology reporter

The drama of that final pass is about to get a whole lot closer. A video camera built into the side of an football would normally just provide a dizzying swirl of images as the ball spirals through the air, but computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo, Japan, have found a way to turn that whirling world into a steady stream of video framed on the field of play.

Project leader Kris Katani got the idea after coming across a 1938 Popular Mechanics article, in which a 16-millimetre film camera was mounted inside a balsa-wood football to record a throw from the air. Katani's method gets a much better result, capturing video at 120 frames per second and turning the spinning footage into a solid stream in a couple of minutes.

To do this, the software in the ball recognises common features of the ground below in each new frame of video. Images of the sky are discounted. It then knits the individual frames together to create a smooth sequence.

In a paper describing the ball camera, due to be presented at the Augmented Human conference in Stuttgart, Germany, next month, the group writes that the end goal is to "extend the frontiers of the spectator experienceby capturing the excitement of being on the field through the ball's first-person point of view".

Katani is confident the technique could be miniaturised and streamlined to fit unobtrusively into a US National Football League football, but suspects that the NFL's strict standards will hold the technology back in the near future. "If professional hardware were to come in, you'd be able to separate the lens from the recording device," he says, allowing for the recording device to be stored securely within the ball. "The technology is there."

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International standard schools face shutdown after Indonesia court ruling

JAKARTA: Ten years ago, Indonesia set up international standard schools with the aim of producing globally-competitive students.

But some say the project was a failure... and the Constitutional Court has recently called for the schools to be disbanded, as they are now considered to be discriminatory.

Students in one of the classes are learning Chemistry... not in Bahasa Indonesia, but in English.

This is one out of over 1,300 public schools nationwide that run classes following international standards.

The project that began in 2003 was meant to groom Indonesian students to compete globally.

Besides the national curriculum, schools employ internationally-recognised curricula and set higher standards for student enrolment and teacher qualification.

Anwar Farid, Vice Principal of SMA 68 High School, said: "The standards set in the programme motivate teachers to get a Masters degree and reach a certain TOEFL score of English proficiency. It motivates teachers to reach a higher standard. The applied curriculum combines the national curriculum and the Cambridge curriculum. This enhances teachers' and students' knowledge."

In international standard classes, Science, Math, Chemistry, Physics and Biology are mostly taught in English.

Adam Abdullah, an SMA 68 high school student, said: "This is a globalisation era, we need to speak English everywhere, even in our own country."

But a recent Constitutional Court ruling will put an end to these international standard schools, as they are now considered to be unconstitutional and discriminatory.

Febri Hendri, Public Service Monitoring Division, Indonesia Corruption Watch, said: "International standard schools provoke discrimination against other schools and within the community. Discrimination comes from the government giving privilege and much financial assistance to international standard schools."

International Standard Schools or RSBI school get a block grant from the government ranging from US$20,000 to US$50,000 a year for the first three years.

They are also allowed to charge higher school fees - US$2,500 a year - that includes Cambridge curriculum books and annual exams.

Students at regular or "normal track" public schools don't have to pay any school fees.

Ridha Tobing, a SMA 68 high school student, said: "There are also bad things about maintaining this RSBI. It's making different social gaps in terms of our SMA 68 school and other schools that are non-RSBI schools. It makes us look better, more educated, and more skilful."

The Education and Culture Minister is devising a new plan to keep some of the programmes under the international standard school plan but didn't clarify how he'll be able to keep English as the primary language of instruction as it is now deemed illegal.

The Constitutional Court Chief Justice said the Ministry has until April to decide the status of the schools, but will allow international standard schools to operate normally until the end of the school year in June.

- CNA/de

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Saverin: Facebook's rapid growth is its 'biggest risk'

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin.

(Credit:
Facebook)

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin isn't convinced that the social network's fast-growing strategy is a good one.

Speaking at a conference in Singapore today, Saverin said that while growth is a "huge asset," it can lead to a very real problem that shouldn't be overlooked.

"The biggest risk is growing too fast," he said, according to Bloomberg, which was in attendance at the event. "When you grow too fast, it's hard to iterate, educate."

Facebook is making no secret that it wants to grow as quickly as possible. Last month, the company's CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that he planned to increase spending by 50 percent, or $1.4 billion. That came after the company boosted spending by 67 percent in the previous year. Facebook plans to spend a bulk of its cash on mobile initiatives and advertising -- two elements that will prove extremely important for future growth.

Still, there's a problem. As Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter told CNET last month, the social network needs to see revenue grow by 28 percent "just to keep net income flat" if it actually increases spending by 50 percent. And that might prove difficult.

Saverin, who netted a huge sum in Facebook's IPO, and has a net worth that exceeds $1 billion, has had his fair share of trouble with the company. Saverin years ago sued Facebook for his stake in the company. After a drawn out fight, the case was settled out of court and he was given a co-founder credit on Facebook's site.

Despite the risks, rapid growth is not something new for Facebook. The company currently has 1.1 billion active users and continues to see huge growth in several countries around the world. Perhaps that's why Facebook's plan for rapid growth isn't concerning the company -- it's the same old thing it's been dealing with since its founding.

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NASA's Mars Rover Makes Successful First Drill

For the first time ever, people have drilled into a rock on Mars, collecting the powdered remains from the hole for analysis.

Images sent back from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Wednesday confirmed that the precious sample is being held by the rover's scoop, and will soon be delivered to two miniature chemical labs to undergo an unprecedented analysis. (Related: "Mars Rover Curiosity Completes First Full Drill.")

To the delight of the scientists, the rock powder has come up gray and not the ubiquitous red of the dust that covers the planet. The gray rock, they believe, holds a lot of potential to glean information about conditions on an early Mars. (See more Mars pictures.)

"We're drilling into rock that's a time capsule, rocks that are potentially ancient," said sampling-system scientist Joel Hurowitz during a teleconference from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

A Place to Drill

The site features flat bedrock, often segmented into squares, with soil between the sections and many round gray nodules and white mineral veins.

Hurowitz said that the team did not attempt to drill into the minerals or the gray balls, but the nodules are so common that they likely hit some as they drilled down 2.5 inches (6.3 centimeters).

In keeping with the hypothesis that the area was once under water, Hurowitz said the sample "has the potential of telling us about multiple interactions of water and rock."

The drill, located at the end of a seven-foot (two-meter) arm, requires precision maneuvering in its placement and movement, and so its successful initial use was an exciting and welcome relief. The rover has been on Mars since August, and it took six months to find the right spot for that first drill. (Watch video of the Mars rover Curiosity.)

The flat drilling area is in the lower section of Yellowknife Bay, which Curiosity has been exploring for more than a month. What was previously identified by Curiosity scientists as the dry bed of a once-flowing river or stream appears to fan out into the Yellowknife area.

The bedrock of the site—named after deceased Curiosity deputy project manager John Klein—is believed to be siltstone or mudstone. Scientists said the veins of white minerals are probably calcium sulfate or gypsum, but the grey nodules remain something of a mystery.

Triumph

To the team that designed and operates the drill, the results were a triumph, as great as the much-heralded landing of Curiosity on the red planet. With more than a hundred maneuvers in its repertoire, the drill is unique in its capabilities and complexities. (Watch video of Curiosity's "Seven Minutes of Terror.")

Sample system chief engineer Louise Jandura, who has worked on the drill for eight years, said the Curosity team had made eight different drills before settling on the one now on the rover. The team tested each drill by boring 1,200 holes on 20 types of rock on Earth.

She called the successful drilling "historic" because it gives scientists unprecedented access to material that has not been exposed to the intense weathering and radiation processes that affect the Martian surface.

Mini-laboratories

The gray powder will be routed to the two most sophisticated instruments on Curiosity—the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) and Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin).

SAM, the largest and most complex instrument onboard, operates with two ovens that can heat the sample up to 1,800°F (982°C), turning the elements and compounds in the rock into gases that can then be identified. SAM can also determine whether any carbon-based organic material is present.

Organics are the chemical building blocks of life on Earth. They are known to regularly land on Mars via meteorites and finer material that rains down on all planets.

But researchers suspect the intense radiation on the Martian surface destroys any organics on the surface. Scientists hope that organics within Martian rocks are protected from that radiation.

CheMin shoots an X-ray beam at its sample and can analyze the mineral content of the rock. Minerals provide a durable record of environmental conditions over the eons, including information about possible ingredients and energy sources for life.

Both SAM and CheMin received samples of sandy soil scooped from the nearby Rocknest outcrop in October. SAM identified organic material, but scientists are still trying to determine whether any of it is Martian or the byproduct of organics inadvertently brought to Mars by the rover. (See "Mars Rover Detects Simple Organic Compounds.")

In the next few days, CheMin will be the first to receive samples of the powdered rock, and then SAM. Given the complexity of the analysis, and the track record seen with other samples, it will likely be weeks before results are announced.

The process of drilling and collecting the results was delayed by several glitches that required study and work-arounds. One involved drill software and the other involved a test-bed problem with a sieve that is part of the process of delivering samples to the instruments.

Lead systems engineer Daniel Limonadi said that while there was no indication the sieve on Mars was malfunctioning, they had become more conservative in its use because of the test bed results. (Related: "A 2020 Rover Return to Mars?")

Author of the National Geographic e-book Mars Landing 2012, Marc Kaufman has been a journalist for more than 35 years, including the past 12 as a science and space writer, foreign correspondent, and editor for the Washington Post. He is also author of First Contact: Scientific Breakthroughs in the Hunt for Life Beyond Earth, published in 2011, and has spoken extensively to crowds across the United States and abroad about astrobiology. He lives outside Washington, D.C., with his wife, Lynn Litterine.

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Lead Pistorius Cop Facing Attempted Murder Charge

Hilton Botha, the detective at the center of the Oscar Pistorius murder case, is facing his own attempted murder charges in connection with a 2011 shooting in which he and other police officers allegedly fired a gun at passengers in a vehicle.

Botha is scheduled to appear in court in May on seven counts of attempted murder in connection to the October 2011 incident in which he and two other officers allegedly fired shots at a minibus they were attempting to stop. It's unclear whether any of the passengers were injured.

Botha has been outlining details this week at the Olympic runner's bail hearing of his investigation into the Feb. 14 shooting death of Reeva Steenkamp at Pistorius' home in Pretoria, South Africa. Botha was one of the first officers to arrive at the scene, where Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model, was found fatally shot three times.

PHOTOS: Paralympic Champion Charged in Killing

Pistorius, a double-amputee who walks on carbon fiber blades, says he killed his girlfriend accidentally.

Prosecutors say they were unaware of the charges against the detective when he took the stand this week, according to The Associated Press.

Oscar Pistorius: Investigator Faces Attempted Murder Charges Watch Video

Oscar Pistorius's Bail Hearing: Prosecutors Argue Premeditated Murder Watch Video

Oscar Pistorius Bail Hearing: New Evidence Revealed Watch Video

"The prosecutors were not aware of those charges [against Botha]," Medupe Simasiku of the National Prosecution Agency said. "We are calling up the information so we can get the details of the case. From there, we can take action and see if we remove him from the investigation or if he stays."

FULL COVERAGE: Oscar Pistorius Case

Botha muddled testimony and eventually admitted Wednesday at Pistorius' bail hearing that the suspect's account of the Valentine's Day shooting did not contradict the police's version of events.

A spokesman for the NPA admitted today that charges pending against Botha were not helpful for the credibility of the prosecution's case, but that the case would hinge on forensic evidence, not the testimony of a police officer.

Pistorius has argued in court that he was closing his balcony doors when he heard a noise from the bathroom. Fearing an intruder, and without his prosthetic legs on, he grabbed a gun from under his bed and fired through the closed bathroom door, he told the court.

But prosecutors say that's implausible, that the gun's holster was found under the side of the bed where Steenkamp slept, and that Pistorius would have seen she wasn't there. Prosecutors also say the angle at which the shots were fired shows Pistorius was already wearing his prosthetics when he fired.

Defense attorneys representing Pistorius tore into investigators Wednesday, accusing them of sloppy police work and saying the substance that police identified as testosterone, which they found in his bathroom, was an herbal supplement.

In a statement overnight, Pistorius' family said the new testimony brought "more clarity" to the hearing.

Meanwhile, Steenkamp's cousin told CNN that she wants to believe Pistorius' story.

"That is what in my heart, I hope and wish is the truth, because I would not like to think my cousin suffered," Kim Martin, Steenkamp's cousin, told CNN's Piers Morgan. "I would not like to think that she was scared."

Steenkamp's brother Adam Steenkamp said the family is trying to focus on better days.

"We're remembering the positive," he said. "We're remembering the good."

Pistorius today was dropped by two of his sponsors, Nike and Thierry Mugler.

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Fertiliser makes another reason to eat less meat

IT'S not a good time to be a meat lover. As the horsemeat scandal spreads across Europe, a new report blames livestock for farms' excessive fertiliser use.

Last week, Europol, the pan-European police force, announced it would investigate how cheap horsemeat came to be added to "beef" products, and UK police arrested three individuals on suspicion of food fraud.

Against this backdrop, the UN Environment Programme revealed that 80 per cent of the fertiliser used in farming globally is for meat production – mainly to fertilise pastures and fodder crops. As over half the fertiliser put on fields isn't absorbed by crops, the resulting pollution is killing rivers, causing dead zones in the oceans, encouraging alien species and adding to acid rain and climate change.

Lead author Mark Sutton of the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Edinburgh calls for fertiliser to be used 20 per cent more efficiently by 2020 – and for us all to eat less meat.

There was some good news for carnivores, however. The UK Food Standards Agency announced on 15 February that just 29 of 2501 meat products tested contained horse DNA.

This article appeared in print under the headline "Let them eat veg?"

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Annabel Pennefather named Chef de Mission for SEA Games in Myanmar

SINGAPORE: Miss Annabel Pennefather has been named Chef de Mission for the Singapore contingent at this year's SEA Games in Myanmar.

This will be her fifth time as Chef de Mission to Singapore's contingent.

Previously, she filled that role at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, the 2004 Athens Olympics, the 2006 Asian Games in Doha and most recently, the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

- CNA/de

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Sprint shopping for more wireless spectrum, report says

A Sprint store in Manhattan.

(Credit:
CNET/Marguerite Reardon)

Sprint Nextel is shopping for more wireless spectrum, Bloomberg reported, as the nation's third-largest carrier tries to catch up with bigger rivals Verizon Wireless and AT&T. Dan Hesse told the publication in an interview this month that Sprint's purchase of Clearwire will give it a strong position for a period of time, but Sprint wants to buy more spectrum to help it in the long term.

Sprint is looking at making deals with other companies or buying spectrum through government sales, Hesse said, according to Bloomberg.

Sprint, which late last year reached a $20.1 billion merger pact with SoftBank, has largely been on the sidelines in the spectrum rush while Verizon and AT&T have spent billions on acquisitions. But the cash from Softbank will help Sprint make more purchases. Already, it agreed to buy the stake of Clearwire that it didn't already own. It also paid $480 million to buy certain U.S. Cellular customers and spectrum.

Bloomberg, citing an analyst, noted that Sprint's options may include buying more capacity from smaller carriers like U.S. Cellular or Leap Wireless or buying them outright. It also could pursue a deal with Dish.

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Pistorius Shots Said to Come From High Angle

At the second day of a bail hearing for Olympian Oscar Pistorius, a South African investigator who arrived at the scene of the Feb. 14 fatal shooting said that Reeva Steenkamp was shot from a high angle, which prosecutors say contradicts the runner's account that he was not wearing his prosthetics when he shot his girlfriend to death.

Pistorius, a double-amputee who runs on carbon-fiber blades, appeared in court for the second day in a row after his arrest in the death of girlfriend Steenkamp at his gated home in Pretoria, South Africa.

Read Oscar Pistorius' Full Statement to the Court

PHOTOS: Paralympic Champion Charged in Killing

Arresting officer Hilton Botha told the court today that the 26-year-old was standing in the master bathroom when he shot the supermodel, who was crouched in a defensive position behind a locked door in a smaller powder room. He also said that the bullets that were fired had been fired from high up, and the bullets seemed to be coming in a downward direction.

"[The angle] seems to me down. Fired down," Botha told the court.

Pistorius said Tuesday that he went to the bathroom and fired through the door before putting on his prosthetic legs.

Oscar Pistorius: Defense Presents New Evidence Watch Video

'Blade Runner' Appears in Court to Hear Murder Charges Watch Video

He said he mistakenly shot his girlfriend, thinking she was an intruder.

Prosecutors also said that they found two boxes of testosterone in the bedroom, although the defense disputes that, saying it's just herbal supplements.

The court also heard that a witness, someone about 2,000 feet away from Pistorius' home, heard nonstop fighting the morning of the shooting.

"We have a witness who says she heard non-stop shouting and fighting between 2 and 3 a.m.," said prosecutor Gerrie Nel, who added that another witness saw lights on at the time of the gunshots.

Pistorius says he spent a quiet night with Steenkamp before the shooting.

Nel said that Pistorius' actions and phone calls on the night indicate pre-planning, and that there was a "deliberate aiming of shots at the toilet from about 1.5 meters [about 5 feet]."

He says Steenkamp was shot on the right side of her body.

Officer Botha also said Pistorius should be considered a flight risk because investigators discovered that he has offshore bank accounts and a house in Italy.

"I think it would be hard to get him back," Botha told the court. "This is a very serious crime, shooting an unarmed woman behind closed door."

Prosecutors also say they may file more charges for unlicensed ammunition, after a special-caliber .38 round was found in a safe in Pistorius' home.

Botha told the court today that he arrived at Pistorius' home at 4:15 a.m. Valentine's Day to find Steenkamp already dead, dressed in a white shorts and a black vest, and covered in towels. The only thing that Pistorius said was, 'I thought it was a burglar,'" according to Botha.

The 26-year-old sprinter Tuesday denied that he willfully killed Steenkamp, telling the court that he shot the woman through his bathroom door because he believed she was an intruder.

Botha said today that he attended Steenkamp's postmortem, and that she had three entrance wounds: one on the head, one in the elbow and one in the hip.

Describing the scene to the court, Botha said that the shots fired into the bathroom were aimed at the toilet bowl.

The shooter "would have to walk into the bathroom and turn directly at the door to shoot at the toilet the way the bullets went," he said.

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