Dewani won't share a room

Shrien Dewani. 

Cape Town - More details have emerged in court documents about honeymoon murder suspect Shrien Dewani's extradition process.

Dewani is set to arrive in South Africa from the UK on 8 April after a lengthy legal battle to prevent his extradition.

The Cape Times on Monday reported that Dewani will likely be accompanied by two Hawks detectives and a registered nurse on the "direct overnight flight" from London to Cape Town.

Upon his arrival, he will be taken to the Western Cape High Court, where he is expected to be charged in the presence of his lawyer.

 According to the newspaper, if he is denied bail and it is found that he is suffering from mental illness, he will be transferred to the general psychiatric unit at Valkenberg Hospital in Cape Town. If he is granted bail but requires medical care, he will still be transferred to Valkenberg Hospital.

Dewani will sleep in a "single occupancy room" at his request, according to the report.

The justice department made a number of allowances in order for Dewani's extradition to South Africa to be approved by British courts. It undertook to return him to the UK if he was found unfit to stand trial.

Dewani is accused of masterminding the murder of his bride, Anni, in Cape Town in November 2010.

Zuma's Nkandla comments 'an insult' DA says

(Nkandla)

Johannesburg - President Jacob Zuma's decision to ignore the recommendations of Public Protector Thuli Madonsela undermines her office, the DA said on Monday.

"The DA condemns in the strongest terms President Jacob Zuma’s statement that he has done nothing wrong with respect to Nkandla and won’t repay the money he has been instructed to by... Madonsela," parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko said.

"This is an insult to every South African who has been deprived because of the redirection of millions of rands to upgrade the president’s private residence in KwaZulu-Natal."

The Democratic Alliance had asked its lawyers to consider what steps could be taken to force Zuma to comply with the recommendations in Madonsela's report.

The report found that Zuma and his family improperly benefited from the R246m security upgrades to his Nkandla homestead that included a cattle kraal, a swimming pool and an amphitheatre.

Zuma 'can't absolve himself from responsibility'

On Monday it was reported that Zuma told a crowd in Gugulethu he would not repay the money because he did not ask for the upgrades. He placed the blame on government officials.

"They did this without telling me," he told ANN7

"So why should I pay for something I did not ask for."

Mazibuko said that Zuma could not absolve himself from responsibility.

"If he didn’t ask for them [upgrades] then why did he not intervene to stop them from taking place?" she asked.

Mazibuko said Parliament must investigate if he misled them, and whether he should be removed from office.

"President Zuma cannot claim ignorance on this matter. It is misleading and disingenuous, and Parliament... now has a duty to investigate fully whether he misled the House and broke the law, and consequently, whether he should be removed from office," she said.

"The DA will continue to do everything possible to ensure all those responsible for this wrongdoing - including Zuma - are held to account."

Give Nkandla reports time - ANC

Gwede Mantashe

Johannesburg - The ANC's national executive committee (NEC) is satisfied with the work being done on two reports on Nkandla, the party said on Monday.

"The NEC... expressed its satisfaction with the responses and work undertaken by our officials and the NWC on this matter," ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe told reporters in Johannesburg.

"It further noted that there are processes that need to be given a chance, like the pending report of the president expected in due course and progress on the work of the Special [Investigating] Unit."

In her report on the security upgrades done as President Jacob Zuma's private Nkandla homestead in KwaZulu-Natal titled "Secure in Comfort", Public Protector Thuli Madonsela found that Zuma had unduly benefited from the improvements.

These included a cattle kraal and swimming pool, built with state money.

She also stated in the report that he should refund a portion of the R246m cost.

On Monday, it was reported that Zuma told a crowd in Gugulethu in Cape Town he would not repay the money because he did not ask for the upgrades.

He placed the blame on government officials.

"They did this without telling me," he told ANN7.

"So why should I pay for something I did not ask for."

Pistorius trial postponed to 7 April

Oscar Pistorius is seen in the North Gauteng High Court. 

The Oscar Pistorius murder trial has been postponed to 7 April, due to one of the court assessors being ill.

Judge Thokozile Masipa started proceedings on Friday morning by stating that the court was not properly constituted, and suggesting that the matter be postponed to 7 April, which would have been recess week.

The prosecution and defence agreed to this.

Farmer mistook worker for baboon (shot him)

A farmer convicted for unlawful handling of a firearm was jailed for six months by the Musina Regional Court in Limpopo on Monday, SABC News reported.

Johannes Fourie was given an option to pay a R6 000 fine to avoid imprisonment, the broadcaster reported.

He shot and injured one of his workers, apparently mistaking him for a baboon.

According to the report, the court withdrew the charge of attempted murder due to lack of evidence.

Fourie had approached the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria a few years ago challenging the State's decision to charge him with attempted murder.

In a separate court case a farmer, Julie Crossberg, accused of shooting dead his Zimbabwean national farm worker, was convicted.

Crossberg also claimed he mistook his target for a baboon.

Oscar to testify

Oscar Pistorius is seen in the North Gauteng High Court.

Pretoria - Murder accused Oscar Pistorius will testify in his own defence, his legal team said on Tuesday.

"I don't think we have a choice. The question is when," a member of Pistorius's legal team, Brian Webber, told journalists after the murder trial was postponed to Friday by the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria.

The State closed its case in the Paralympian’s murder trial on Tuesday.

"If it pleases the court, My Lady, learned assessors, this is the State's case," prosecutor Gerrie Nel told Judge Thokozile Masipa.

This happened shortly after Barry Roux, for Pistorius, recalled Colonel Johannes Vermeulen to the stand to re-examine him.

Vermeulen had testified about the marks Pistorius made in the door of his toilet with his cricket bat.

He shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp through the locked door, apparently thinking she was an intruder, in his Pretoria home on 14 February last year. He then used a cricket bat to break down the door and get Steenkamp out.

After Nel had spoken, Roux asked for a postponement of the trial until Friday.

"We need your indulgence to consider the statements of witnesses not called by the State and see who will be available and willing to talk to us," he told Masipa.

She granted the postponement.

Pistorius is charged with the premeditated murder of Steenkamp and with contraventions of the Firearms Control Act.

US device can hear black box pings up to 6 000m deep (Malaysian Airlines plane)

Washington - The US Navy is deploying a special undersea device to help find the black box of the Malaysian Airlines plane that crashed more than two weeks ago in the southern Indian Ocean.

The so-called towed pinger locator can identify the characteristic "ping" emitted by the flight recorder from an ocean depth of more than 6 000m, according to the Defence Department.

Even before the location of MH370 wreckage debris was confirmed Monday, the US Pacific Command ordered the Pacific Fleet to move the device into the region as a "precautionary measure in case a debris field is located."

"Basically, this super-sensitive hydrophone gets towed behind a commercial vessel very slowly and listens for black box pings," said Navy Commander Chris Budde, US 7th Fleet operations officer.

The device triangulates from different positions to zero in on the precise location of the sound.

Budde noted that speed was of the essence in finding MH370's black box.

The so-called black box, which in reality is usually a bright orange for high visibility, is a flight data recorder built to keep up transmissions for only 30 days.

It could help explain how and why MH370 cut communications with the ground and flew so far off course from its destination in Beijing.

Oscar, Reeva messages 90% normal, loving - cop

An emotional Oscar Pistorius in court. 

Johannesburg – A police cellphone analyst told the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Monday, that of the more than 1 000 messages between Oscar Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp, 90% were "normal and loving" conversations.

In one of the 1 709 messages Captain Francois Moller extracted from the couple's phones, Moller read a message from Steenkamp sent on 27 January 2013.

"I'm scared of you sometimes and how you snap at me and of how you will react to me. You make me happy ninety percent of the time and I think we are amazing together... but I am not some other bitch... trying to kill your vibe...

"I'm the girl who fell in love with you but I'm also the girl who gets side-stepped when you are in a shit mood... I get snapped at and told my accent and voices are annoying," wrote Steenkamp in a cellphone message, while Pistorius cried in the dock.

The message began: "You have picked on me excessively... I do everything to make you happy and you do everything to throw tantrums... "

In the message from Steenkamp, sent at 16:17, she wrote that it was the engagement that day of one of her best friends.

She said he had "picked on her incessantly" since he got back "from CT".

"I understand you are sick but it is nasty," wrote Steenkamp.

She continued: "I was not flirting with anyone today. I feel sick that you should suggest it..."

He "made a scene at the table" which made them leave early.

They were "living in a double standard relationship" where "you can be mad".

She went on to say that Pistorius could talk to her about how "you have dated another chick" but he got upset about stories about a long term boyfriend.

"You do everything to throw tantrums in front of other people. I am so upset."

She said he made her happy "90 percent of the time" and she thought they were "amazing" together.

She said she got snapped at and told "do this do that".

"You fucked up a special day for me" she texted.

‘Unhappy and sad’

She apologised for him thinking she was "hitting on" her friend Sam's husband.

"I just want to love and be loved ...and I'm certainly very unhappy and sad."

Pistorius replied later at 17:01 saying he wanted to "sort this out".

"I'm sorry for the things I say without thinking and for taking offence to some of your actions".

He said being ill was not an excuse but he was upset that she left him to "go talk to a guy".

He was upset that she carried on talking to him when he walked away.

He said when he left he was starving because he had only eaten a tiny wrap.

"I was hungry and upset," he said.

He apologised for asking her to stop patting his head the previous day saying he knew she was just showing him love and apologised for asking her to stop putting on an accent.

Moller read another message from Steenkamp to Pistorius on 7 February in which she said she was unhappy about the way she had been treated at a function she went to him with.

"I did not think you would criticise me so loudly. I regard myself as a lady but I did not feel like one tonight," she said.

She said he was the one person she deserved to be protected by.

Moller said that of the more than 1 000 communications, 90% were "normal and loving" conversations.

Pistorius has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Steenkamp and to charges under the Firearms Act relating to the alleged discharge of a weapon in Tasha's restaurant and out of the sunroof of a car in Modderfontein.

Oscar's paper trail comes back to haunt him

Oscar Pistorius’s paper trail will likely come back to haunt him, as his correspondence to Reeva Steenkamp in the months prior to her death was read out in court.

Francois Moller, a police phone expert, testified after examining pages of texts, WhatsApp messages and other forms of digital communication.

If the State will contend that Pistorius was a jealous and angry lover, prone to outbursts and bouts of rage that frightened his girlfriend, it’s all there in the messages.

But firstly, it is getting nigh impossible to see how Pistorius will escape the charge of unlawfully discharging a firearm inside a restaurant, as many witnesses to the incident have testified, and he also mentions it in a message to his girlfriend, with the same instructions as were given to his friends: nobody was to know that he pulled the trigger and Darren Fresco would take the blame.

It ought to be fascinating to watch his legal team try and wriggle out of that one.

But of all the pages and pages of correspondence, Moller found several that were enlightening to the court. Pistorius was furious that his girlfriend smoked marijuana during a trip shooting a reality television show.

Her response was that she always had innocent, harmless fun. Later, the athlete apparently couldn't handle the way that she spoke to another man at a party, and he accused her of flirting with him.

After her denials, he still messaged her in a way that said that he wasn't happy with her at all.

Another set of messages seems to talk about another public blowout, with Pistorius criticising her in front of other people.

WhatsApp message

"You have picked on me incessantly... I do everything to make you happy and you do everything to throw tantrums. I am scared of you sometimes, how you snap at me and how you will react to me," Steenkamp wrote.

"You make me happy 90% of the time and I think we are amazing together... but I am not some other bitch... trying to kill your vibe... I'm the girl who fell in love with you but I'm also the girl who gets side-stepped when you are in a shit mood... I get snapped at and told my accent and voices are annoying."

We will await the defence's response to see where they will go with this one, but one possibility is to argue that the messages are inconsequential to the case - after all, Moller testified that the large majority of the correspondence was "normal and loving".

We could also get bogged down in technicalities if the defence teams finds a mistake in the way that the data was harvested.

Pistorius might come on the stand and offer a completely different story to the one that was teased out of the texts.

But it's pretty damning stuff. It was as if Steenkamp was speaking from the grave. The reaction of Pistorius in court as his messages were read out was as if he was hearing a ghost.

But he's sitting in court for killing her, and such exercises are placing a certain context on the incident.

It was necessary for the court to violate his privacy like this to try and find the truth about the relationship, as deeply unpleasant as it was to watch.

Together with the screaming that the neighbours are certain they heard, it is not implausible (at the moment) to fit the evidence to the reason why the State is arguing for murder.

Dewani trial

There is a good chance that once the Pistorius trial is over, a portion of the media circus will go off to Cape Town to follow the Shrien Dewani murder case. After a lengthy fight against extradition, the British courts finally ruled last week that he is fit to stand trial. He will be landing on 7 April.

It is a neat coincidence that after spending years fighting against appearing to answer for hiring hitmen to murder his wife on the basis that the South African criminal justice isn’t fit to handle the hearing fairly, he arrives in the midst of the most watched trial in the world. But in spite of putting off the trial for years to get treatment for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, the inevitable must finally happen. (If his health deteriorates, South Africa will have to return him to Bristol.)

“We are working tirelessly to ensure that his return to our shores brings to finality this protracted legal process. We are confident that he will receive fair trial in our courts,” said justice department spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga.

The judge who allowed broadcast cameras into the Pistorius trial said that it was in the public interest for justice to be seen to be done. This case is meant to be a showcase of South African justice. Dewani arrives in time to be the second big trial that the courts will doubtlessly enjoy using to show how they work.

Malaysia plane search intensifies after debris

A Royal Australian Air Force pilot flies his AP-3C Orion over the Southern Indian Ocean during the search for missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. (Sgt Hamish Paterson, Australian Defence)

Perth - Aircraft from several nations swarmed over the southern Indian Ocean on Monday as the search for a missing Malaysian passenger plane was energised with mounting evidence of floating objects suspected to be linked to the plane.

But the challenge of recovering the still-unidentified flotsam took on added urgency as a tropical cyclone rumbled toward the search zone, threatening to worsen already rough conditions that have thwarted spotters.

China said on Monday that one of its aircraft scouring the area had seen "suspicious" debris, adding to an Australian aircraft's visual sighting on Saturday of a wooden pallet alongside strapping and other debris.

France and China both released satellite information on the weekend that also indicated floating objects far off Australia's west coast - findings that have buoyed hopes of a breakthrough in the more than two-week-old puzzle.

A growing international fleet of military and civilian aircraft has converged on the region, supported by Australian and British naval vessels tasked with retrieving any objects from the forbidding waters.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 vanished without warning on 8 March after suddenly veering off course over the South China Sea en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew.

'Clutching' at information 

Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss cautioned against false hopes in a search that has hit a number of dead ends.

"We're just, I guess, clutching at whatever little piece of information comes along to try and find a place where we might be able to concentrate the efforts," he told national radio.

The US Navy added to the sense of an approaching denouement, ordering the dispatch of a specialised black box locator to the region, a zone around 2 500km southwest of Perth.

Recovery of the black box will be crucial to determining what happened to the Boeing 777.

Malaysia has said the plane was deliberately diverted by someone on board but the absence of firm evidence has fuelled a host of theories that have added to the anguish of family members waiting for news of their loved ones.

"This movement is simply a prudent effort to preposition equipment and trained personnel closer to the search area so that if debris is found we will be able to respond as quickly as possible since the battery life of the black box's pinger is limited," the US Seventh Fleet said.

The listening device is able to locate black boxes down to a maximum depth of 6 100m, it said in a statement. Oceanographers say the stretch of ocean being combed for wreckage ranges from 3 000-4 000m deep.

The 30-day signal from the black box is due to fail in less than two weeks.

The focus of the search had initially centred on waters around Southeast Asia but swung deep into the stormy southern Indian Ocean last week after initial satellite images depicted large floating objects there.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) said 10 aircraft were now involved in a search effort beefed up by the inclusion of two Chinese military aircraft which lifted off early on Monday, joining Australian, US, and Japanese planes.

China has also dispatched seven ships, adding to the British and Australian naval vessels involved.

Tropical cyclone looms

New Zealand Air Commodore Mike Yardley said low clouds and fog continued to make the debris elusive in sorties conducted on Sunday.

"It's a very large search area, but we keep getting more information, and that weight of evidence is pointing towards the area where we're searching, so the crew is pretty upbeat that we're in the right place," he told TVNZ.

However, Tropical Cyclone Gillian which is currently hundreds of kilometres to the north is churning in the direction of the search zone.

Truss said the storm would weaken as it tracks south "but certainly it could stir up less favourable weather".

Satellite and military radar data suggest that after its last communication with air traffic authorities, the plane backtracked over the Malaysian peninsula and then flew on - possibly for hours - to parts unknown.

Three scenarios have emerged to explain what happened: hijacking, pilot sabotage, or a sudden mid-air crisis that incapacitated flight crew and left the plane to fly on auto-pilot until it ran out of fuel and crashed.

Two thirds of the passengers were Chinese. Their grief and frustration has repeatedly boiled over, including in weekend meetings where police had to restrain angry relatives who accused Malaysian officials of withholding information.

"Very often I feel like I'm about to go insane. My emotions are all over the place. I asked the Malaysians to give the answers and they said they couldn't," one relative said on Sunday.

Dewani to be extradited on 7 April

Shrien Dewani 

Honeymoon murder accused Shrien Dewani will be extradited from Britain to South Africa on 7 April, eNCA reported on Sunday.

The news channel said Dewani is expected to land at the Cape Town International Airport on 8 April. He is likely to appear in court on the same day he arrives, the report said.

"The extradition process is now being handled by South African government through the justice department," Sapa reported justice department spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga as saying.

Mhaga said the department was liaising with the office of the Home Secretary in Britain to facilitate the extradition.

"We are working tirelessly to ensure that his return to our shores brings to finality this protracted legal process."

Dewani, aged 33, from Bristol, would face charges related to the murder of his wife Anni.

Honeymoon

Dewani claimed the couple were kidnapped at gun point as they drove through Gugulethu in Cape Town in a taxi in November 2010.

Dewani was released unharmed. The next day his wife's body was found in the abandoned car. She had been shot dead.

The couple were on honeymoon at the time.

Xolile Mngeni was convicted of the murder and jailed for life.

Prosecutors allege Dewani hired him to kill his wife.

Taxi driver Zola Tongo was jailed for 18 years after he admitted his part in the killing. Another accomplice, Mziwamadoda Qwabe, pleaded guilty to murder and received a 25-year prison sentence.

Dewani, who is being detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act, has denied any part in the murder.

ANC set to secure 66%

CA Sunday Times survey has found that contrary to public speculation, the ANC looks set to win a two-thirds majority in this year’s elections.

The survey, carried out by Ipsos on behalf of the newspaper, found that the ANC has 66.1% of voter support, that 22.9% support the Democratic Alliance and 3.7% are in favour of Economic Freedom Fighter leader Julius Malema.

In the 2009 elections, the ruling party garnered only 65.9% of the vote.

While the survey was concluded before the release of the Nkandla report on the security upgrades at President Jacob Zuma’s homestead, it found that ANC-inclined voters felt the drama was more a Zuma issue than an ANC matter.

However, a survey last month by Ipsos found that half of South African adults believe that Zuma and his government are not doing their jobs well. These were the results of face-to-face interviews with 3 564 randomly selected adult South Africans.

Oscar murder trial extended

Oscar Pistorious 

The murder trial of paralympian Oscar Pistorius at the High Court in Pretoria has been extended until mid-May, the office of the chief justice said on Sunday.

"The Oscar Pistorius trial continues... on Monday 24 March to Friday 4 April," said spokesperson Lulama Luti in a statement.

She said the court would then be in recess until 11 April.

"After the recess, the trial will resume on Monday 14 April until Friday 16 May."

Previously, the trial was scheduled to continue until 4 April. It was initially set down from 3 to 20 March.

On Thursday, Pistorius's lawyer, Brian Webber, said the murder accused had to put up his house in the Silver Woods Country Estate for sale in order to fund his legal costs.

French image also shows 'plane debris'

Petty Officer Combat Systems Supervisor Heath Davis on the bridge of HMAS Success keeping a lookout as the ship leaves the port of Fremantle in Western Australia to join the search for missing Malaysia Airlines fight MH370. (Australian Defence, Abis

Kuala Lumpur/ Perth - New French satellite images show possible debris from a missing Malaysian airliner deep in the southern Indian Ocean, Malaysia said on Sunday, adding to growing signs that the plane may have gone down in remote seas off Australia.

The latest lead comes as the international search for Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 entered its third week, with still no confirmed trace of the Boeing 777 that vanished with 239 people on board.

"This morning, Malaysia received new satellite images from the French authorities showing potential objects in the vicinity of the southern corridor," the Malaysian Transport Ministry said in a statement. "Malaysia immediately relayed these images to the Australian rescue co-ordination centre."

The statement gave no details as to whether the objects were in the same vicinity as the other possible finds in a vast swathe of some of the most inhospitable sea territory on Earth.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said there was "increasing hope" of a breakthrough in the hunt for the plane on the strength of Chinese and Australian satellite images of possible large debris from the plane in the southern search area.

Flight MH370 vanished from civilian radar screens early on 8 March, less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur on a scheduled flight to Beijing.

Clear weather

An international force resumed its search efforts on Sunday, zeroing in on two areas about 2 500km southwest of Perth in an effort to find the object identified by China and other small debris including a wooden pallet spotted by a search plane on Saturday.

"The weather in the southern Indian Ocean is much clearer today than the past couple days, allowing for the full spectrum electronic and visual of search capability," Commander William J Marks, spokesperson for the US 7th Fleet, said in an email.

The Chinese discovery was dramatically announced by Malaysia's acting transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein on Saturday, after he was handed a note with details during a news conference in Kuala Lumpur.

China said the object was 22m long and 13m wide, and spotted around 120km "south by west" of potential debris reported by Australia off its west coast.

It could not easily be determined from the blurred images whether the objects were the same as those detected by Australia, but the Chinese photograph could depict a cluster of smaller objects, said a senior military officer from one of the 26 nations involved in the search for the plane.

The wing of a Boeing 777-200ER is approximately 27m long and 14m wide at its base, according to estimates derived from publicly available scale drawings. Its fuselage is 63.7m long by 6.2m wide.

Also of interest was a wooden pallet with various strapping belts that was seen by a civilian jet on Saturday

China satellite finds object near jet search area

A satellite image released by China on Saturday offered the latest sign that wreckage from a Malaysia Airlines plane lost for more than two weeks could be in a remote stretch of the southern Indian Ocean where planes and ships have been searching for three days.

The image, showing an object 22m by 13m, was taken around noon on Tuesday. The image location was about 120km south of where an Australian satellite viewed two objects two days earlier.

The larger object was about as long as the one the Chinese satellite detected.

"The news that I just received is that the Chinese ambassador received a satellite image of a floating object in the southern corridor and they will be sending ships to verify," Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told reporters on Saturday.

Australian officials said the location was within the 36 000km² area they searched on Saturday, but the object was not found.

Australian Maritime Safety Authority spokesperson Andrea Hayward-Maher said she did not know whether the precise co-ordinates of the location had been searched, but added that co-ordinators will use the information to refine the search area.

The authority, which is overseeing the search in the region, said a civil aircraft reported seeing a number of small objects in the search area, including a wooden pallet, but a New Zealand military plane diverted to the location found only clumps of seaweed.

The agency said in a statement that searchers would keep trying to determine whether the objects are related to the lost plane.

The latest satellite image is another clue in the baffling search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which dropped off air traffic control screens 8 March over the Gulf of Thailand with 239 people on board.

After about a week of confusion, Malaysian authorities said pings sent by the Boeing 777-200 for several hours after it disappeared indicated that the plane ended up in one of two huge arcs: A northern corridor stretching from Malaysia to Central Asia, or a southern corridor that stretches toward Antarctica.

Search extended

The discovery of the two objects by the Australian satellite led several countries to send planes and ships to a stretch of the Indian Ocean about 2 500km southwest of Australia. But three days of searching have produced no confirmed signs of the plane.

One of the objects spotted in the earlier satellite imagery was described as 24m in length and the other was 5m. The Boeing 777-200 is about 64m long with a wingspan of 61m and a fuselage about 6.2m in diameter, according to Boeing's website.

In a statement on its website announcing China's find, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence did not explain why it took four days to release the information.

But there was a similar delay in the release of the Australian satellite images because experts needed time to examine them.

Two military planes from China arrived on Saturday in Perth to join Australian, New Zealand and US aircraft in the search.

Japanese planes will arrive on Sunday and ships were in the area or on their way.

Even if both satellites detected the same object, it may be unrelated to the plane. One possibility is that it could have fallen off a cargo vessel.

Erik van Sebille, an oceanographer at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, said the currents in the area typically move at about one metre per second but can sometimes move faster.

Based on the typical speed, a current could theoretically move a floating object about 173km in two days.

Warren Truss, Australia's acting prime minister while Tony Abbott is abroad, said before the new satellite data was announced that a complete search could take a long time.

"It is a very remote area, but we intend to continue the search until we're absolutely satisfied that further searching would be futile - and that day is not in sight," he said.

"If there's something there to be found, I'm confident that this search effort will locate it," Truss said from the base near Perth that is serving as a staging area for search aircraft.

Ships joining search

Aircraft involved in the search include two ultra-long-range commercial jets and four P3 Orions, the maritime safety authority said.

Because the search area is a four-hour flight from land, the Orions can search for about only two hours before they must fly back. The commercial jets can stay for five hours before heading back to the base.

Two merchant ships were in the area, and the HMAS Success, a navy supply ship, had also joined the search.

Hishammuddin, the Malaysian defence minister, said conditions in the southern corridor were challenging.

The area where the objects were identified by the Australian authorities is marked by strong currents and rough seas, and the ocean depth varies between 1 150m and 7 000m.

In addition, Hishammuddin said a low-level warning had been declared for Tropical Cyclone Gillian, although that was north of Australia and closer to Indonesia.

The Chinese planes that arrived in Perth on Saturday were expected to begin searching on Sunday. A small flotilla of ships from China will also join the hunt, along with a refuelling vessel that will allow ships to stay in the search area for a long time, Truss said.

The missing plane, which had been bound for Beijing, carried 153 Chinese passengers. In the Chinese capital on Saturday, relatives of the passengers rose up in anger at the end of a brief meeting with Malaysia Airlines and Malaysian government officials.

"You can't leave here! We want to know what the reality is!" they shouted in frustration over what they saw as officials' refusal to answer questions. The relatives gave reporters a statement saying they believe they have been "strung along, kept in the dark and lied to by the Malaysian government."

Malaysian authorities have not ruled out any possible explanation for what happened to the jet, but have said the evidence so far suggests it was deliberately turned back across Malaysia to the Strait of Malacca, with its communications systems disabled. They are unsure what happened next.

Police are considering the possibilities of hijacking, sabotage, terrorism or issues related to the mental health of the pilots or anyone else on board.

Malaysia asked the US for undersea surveillance equipment to help in the search, said Rear Admiral John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesperson.

Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel promised to assess the availability of the technology and its usefulness in the search, Kirby said.

The Pentagon says it has spent $2.5m to operate ships and aircraft in the search and has budgeted another $1.5m for the efforts.

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Sharpeville Massacre: 54 years ago (Monday, 21st March 1960)

This is the call the African people have been waiting for! It has come! On Monday, 21st March 1960, we launch our positive, decisive campaign against the pass laws in this our country." Thus spoke Mangaliso Sobukwe, three days before Sharpeville. South Africa had started a new phase in her history.

Three days later the Pan-Africanist Leaders started their non-violent campaign to reverse apartheid Mangaliso Sobukwe made his intention clear in a letter to the Commissioner of Police: "I have give strict instruction," he said, "not only to members of my own organization but also to the African people in general, that they should not allow themselves to be provoked into violent action by anyone."

And so, on the appointed day, monday, March 21, thousands of Pan-Africanist reported to the police without their passes and asked to be arrested. Their object was to demostrate the force of organised non-violence. They wanted to make the pass laws unworkable as a first step in a long campaign to achieve "freedom and independence" for Africans by 1963.

The police were taken unawares by the crowds of volunteers who asked to be arrested. In some places the leaders were detained, in others they were persuaded to return home. Everything went according to plan, and then, at Sharpeville, tragedy occured.

It was officially announced that 67 Africans were killed and 186 wounded, after the police had opened fire on the crowd. 

On the same day a riot took place at Langa location near Cape Town, where another crowd of Africans, estimated at 20 000 assembled at police stations to give themselves up for arrest. The police failed to dispense the crowd by baton charges, and the crowd began to throw stones. The police opened fire and 54 people were injured.

Though it was PAC that took the lead in the anti-pass law campaign, it was Chief Luthuli of ANC who called on Africans to observe March 28 as a day of Mourning. PAC leaders supported this move, and Africans responded with unanimity.

After the people's protest, after the Sharpeville killings, after 20 000 people had been detained, after 156 days of nightmare, the Government closed another chapter in our Country's history. There was to be no change. Apartheid and baaskap were here to stay. (Story taken from Drum October 1960)

Starting bid for Oscar Pistorious' home set at R5m

(Oscar's home)

The estate agent handling the sale of Oscar Pistorius’s Pretoria home said on Thursday, the house will be sold in a closed bid, starting at R5m.

Pistorius plans to sell the upmarket R5 031 000 Pretoria house where he shot dead his girlfriend last year, to cover the legal fees for his murder trial, his lawyer said.

Brian Webber, lawyer for the 27-year-old murder accused, said Pistorius was selling his house to cover increasing legal costs

"This is due to the unexpected extension of the trial beyond the initial three-week period for which it was originally set down," he said in a statement.

The Paralympic athlete has been paying his own legal fees since he shot dead Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day last year, according to the statement.

"Due to the delay in finalising the trial, the decision to urgently dispose of his single biggest asset has had to be made," Webber said.

Pistorius is being defended – at a cost of almost R100 000 a day - by Barry Roux and Kenneth Oldwadge, while his court team includes at least three other lawyers, including his family attorney Webber, as well as forensic and ballistic specialists.

Since the shooting Pistorius has been living at his uncle's house in Pretoria.

Prosecutors have charged the double-amputee sprinter with intentionally killing 29-year-old Steenkamp, and are expected to wrap up their case early next week.

Pistorius insists he fired four shots through a locked toilet door after mistaking the model for an intruder.

The authorities turned the runner's home back over to him over a year ago and he had planned to keep it sealed until the trial finished.

"He has been forced to revisit this decision," according to Webber, who said the statement was meant to pre-empt media speculation about the sale.

House value

Pistorius valued the house at R5m during his bail application in February last year.

During his bail hearing, Pistorius outlined his assets. He said he owned the house where he lived and where his girlfriend died, as well as two other houses with a combined value of R1.5m in Pretoria and an empty plot of land worth R1.6m in Langebaan, near Cape Town.

All his properties together were worth R8.3m, the sporting hero told the court.

Pistorius earned world-wide fame as the "Blade Runner" for running on two carbon fibre blades, after both his legs were amputated below the knee when he was born without fibulae.

He became the first double amputee to compete with able-bodied athletes at the London 2012 Olympics.

But he has fallen on hard times since the shooting, and lost many of the endorsement deals that earned him about R5.5m a year.

His trial opened on 3 March, and witnesses have testified to hearing a woman's terrified screams in the dead of night, followed by gunshots.

A police ballistics expert said on Thursday the first shot from Pistorius's 9mm pistol shattered Steenkamp's hip bone.

She then fell over and was struck in the head by another bullet.

The trial resumes on Monday.

Oscar Pistorious has to sell house to cover legal costs

(Oscar's house)

Pretoria  - Oscar Pistorius plans to sell the upmarket Pretoria house where he shot dead his girlfriend last year to cover the legal fees for his murder trial, his lawyer said on Thursday. 

"It has become necessary to sell Mr Pistorius's home in the Silver Woods Country Estate in Pretoria in order for him to raise the necessary funds to cover his increasing legal costs," the 27-year-old's lawyer Brian Webber said in a statement.

Similar properties in the area sell for about R4m.

"This is due to the unexpected extension of the trial beyond the initial three-week period for which it was originally set down."

The Paralympic athlete has been paying his own legal fees since he shot dead Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day last year, according to the statement.

The costs – reportedly as high as about R98 000 a day - are said to include at least three full-time lawyers in court, ballistics and forensics experts as well as an American crime scene reconstruction company.

Since the shooting Pistorius has been living at his uncle's house in Pretoria.

The authorities turned the runner's home in back over to him over a year ago and he had planned to keep it sealed until the trial finished.

“Mr Pistorius has never returned to his home in Silver Woods since the tragedy and... cannot contemplate ever returning to live there again.”

Prosecutors have charged the double-amputee sprinter with intentionally killing Steenkamp, 29, and are expected to wrap up their case early next week.

Pistorius insists he shot the model through a toilet door after mistaking her for an intruder.

The trial resumes on Monday.

Amakhosi landed safe in Kinshasa

100% behind the Glamour boys, hospitality or no hospitality... Conquering Africa

The Amakhosi landed safely at the DRC's N'Djili International Airport in Kinshasa. The Glamour Boys arrived to a waiting crowd of a mixture of well wishers and intimidating soccer fans. "You can beat us in South Africa but not here," said one fan. The Football Manager Bobby Motaung who arrived here on Wednesday, was waiting and facilitated the processes of leading the Glamour Boys seamlessly to a waiting bus. "Where is Doctor Khumalo?  Where is Tshabalala?  Where is Khune?  were the questions coming from the gathered crowd "Here things are tough guys. The treatment has been indifferent since I arrived here on Wednesday, but are here and we will do our best to make sure that arrangements for the game are adequate," warned Motaung. "Everything is fine but now that the Team has arrived, we will keep watching. The hosting Team has not been hospitable at all, but we understand, we are here to play football," commented Bobby. "The environment here is totally different but that won't affect our mission here. We are ready to play in any sort of conditions," said Eric Mathoho. Kaizer Chiefs is in the 12 million populated Kinshasa to play in the 1st Leg of the 2nd Round of the CAF Champions League against AS Vita Club. The match is billed to take place on Sunday, 23rd March 2014. Kickoff at Tata Raphael Stadium is at 15:30. The time difference is 1hr behind SA time.

Oscar trial postponed to next Monday

Advocate Gerrie Nel. 

Pretoria - Oscar Pistorius's murder trial was postponed to Monday next week to allow the State to make final witness consultations, Judge Thokozile Masipa ruled in the High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday.

"It is a reasonable request which I cannot refuse," said Masipa after prosecutor Gerrie Nel asked her for the postponement.

"We will use tomorrow and the long weekend for consultations," said Nel making his submission.

"We have reached this juncture in the trial, My Lady, where the State is wrapping up our evidence and we are contemplating wrapping up our case," he said.

The State intended calling about five more witnesses, he said.

Pistorius's lawyer Barry Roux SC said he would have liked to have used all the court time available but did not object.

The paralympic athlete has been charged with the premeditated murder of Steenkamp and contravening the Firearms Control Act.

He allegedly fired a shot from a Glock pistol under a table at a Johannesburg restaurant in January 2013.

On 30 September 2012 he allegedly shot through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

He said he thought there was an intruder in the house when he fired into the toilet, realising only afterwards it was Steenkamp.

(Oscar Pistorius Trial) Steenkamp's head wound discussed (Sensitive pictures, "blood of deceased" please don't open if you are easily get disturbed)

The horrific nature of a gunshot wound Reeva Steenkamp suffered to her head was explained to the High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday.

Though couched in scientific jargon, the language blood spatter expert Colonel Ian van der Nest used during Oscar Pistorius's murder trial did little to conceal the violent nature of Steenkamp's death.

"What you have here is a fine splatter, broken pieces of hair together with tissue debris that would be consistent with damage to the head of the deceased," Van der Nest said to questions from prosecutor Gerrie Nel.

Displayed on screens around the court, was a close up of the inside of the toilet lid in Pistorius's Pretoria home.

He shot and killed Steenkamp through a locked toilet door, apparently believing she was an intruder, on 14 February last year. She was shot in the hip, arm, and head.

Nel asked Van der Nest about the significance of the broken pieces of hair on the inside of the lid.

Blood-soaked hair

The forensics officer said there must have been "significant force" exerted on the hair to break it.

"It is in keeping with a significant particulate event near the toilet, with the head of the deceased coming into contact with the toilet," Van der Nest said, speaking loudly and clearly.

He testified about the two areas of blood, one on the toilet lid, the other on the floor at the base of the toilet.

The latter was "consistent with continued bleeding from the arm". The pattern on the lid of the toilet would have been caused by blood-soaked hair.

After Van der Nest was excused from the stand, cellphone expert Colonel Mike Sale was called to the stand.

The paralympic athlete has been charged with the premeditated murder of Steenkamp and of contravening the Firearms Control Act.

He allegedly fired a shot from a Glock pistol under a table at a Johannesburg restaurant in January 2013.

On 30 September 2012 he allegedly shot through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein.

Pistorius has also pleaded not guilty to these two charges.

Court hears details of shots that killed Reeva

Barry Roux and Oscar Pistorius in court 

Ballistic details related to the four shots that killed murder accused Oscar Pistorius's girlfriend were heard in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday.

Ballistics investigator Captain Christian Mangena gave this evidence on his examination of the toilet door through which Pistorius fired the shots that killed Reeva Steenkamp.

He said after reassembling the door at ballistics, with the original screws, he marked out the bullet holes and took it back to Pistorius's house in Silver Woods Estate in Pretoria.

Forensics expert Colonel Johan Vermeulen helped him reassemble the door.

Mangena marked the bullet holes again and took their measurements.

Bullet hole "a" was at a 93.5cm height from the bathroom floor, "b" was 104.3cm, "d" was 99.4cm and "d" was 97.3cm," he testified.

Mangena said he went into the toilet cubicle and noticed marks on the tiles, and marked these as a marks made by ricochets.

He took the measurements of those two holes.

He found traces of lead on the tiles and photographed these three marks. He used a rod to determine the trajectory of the bullet perforating the door.

"This indicates the target is going to be somebody who is inside the toilet," he said.

It was at a slight downward angle of between five and six degrees.

Mangena used an angle finder in determining the angle of the bullet and explained that he used a laser to establish the trajectory.

He said he put the laser on a tripod then closed the door and a laser beam went through the bullet hole mark. He also used an angle finder on the laser to measure the height of the laser.

He asked to see pictures taken of the scene.

"I wanted to see the position of the cartridges at the scene," said Mangena.

Pistorius has been charged with the premeditated murder of Steenkamp in his house on 4 February last year, but contends that he mistook her for an intruder.

He has also denied two charges of contravening the Firearms Control Act.

The trial resumes on Wednesday.

Oscar trial: From gore to bore

Well, public interest in the Oscar Pistorius trial has sunk to a new low. A poll ran on this website found that up to 60% of people have “had enough”. The wheels of justice grind along at a truly slow pace. This has been the case even in this high-profile case. The number of journalists attending is dwindling too. This is the nature of the criminal justice system. On Tuesday, Warrant Officer Barend van Staden gave his testimony. He was the police officer who took photos of Oscar Pistorius’s house on the day that Reeva Steenkamp died, and again over the course of a few weeks as the investigation rolled on. He took 15 albums of photos detailing every aspect that could be deemed important by the investigators.

The importance of his work will become apparent later on in the trial as different classes and types of expert witnesses are called. But for now, we sat through hours of descriptions of picture contents. Some showed bullet casings, and blood spatters and items of clothing and the debris of the broken door. We have an idea of some of the expert witnesses to be called. There were drops of blood found in strange areas, like behind and on the bed, and also weird damage to the bedroom door. Blood spatter and ballistics experts may spend their own marathon sessions on the stand.

Unsolved puzzle

But for now, what we are looking at is essentially a gigantic, unsolved puzzle. All the pieces are in those albums. Defence advocate Barry Roux wanted to find all the photos that were taken of Pistorius. One imagines he wants to see all the pieces in order to construct his story. Without the context of the forensics work, it is somewhat tedious. No wonder reporters have found something else to do in the meantime. (I can’t imagine the courtrooms will continue to empty if Pistorius takes the stand.) But for one person, the court exhibits still hold a shocking power. June Steenkamp, Reeva’s mother, was briefly at the court in the morning. But as more and more photos of her the site of her daughter’s end were shown, including a blood-drenched toilet, it got too much. She left. Aimee, Pistorius’s sister, had better luck with negotiating the awkward politics of the two families that sit side-by-side. She managed a brief exchange with the mother. Last week, the athlete’s own overtures to a friend were firmly ignored. Speaking of politics, the ANC Women’s League is still making haphazard appearances at the court. But the histrionics and electioneering outside of the court has thankfully moved on. It helped that the weekend cover stories have gone back to the 7 May elections, and the erosion of accountability and democratic institutions, via the vicious attacks on the public protector. For all its hype, even the Pistorius trial must calm down at some stage.