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Please share this to support @Danid2ois Dani Alvis after experiencing racial acts this weekend. Say No to racism

R1m reward for Witbank robbers

Johannesburg - A substantial amount of money was stolen from the SBV Cash Centre on Monday in Witbank, Mpumalanga by an unknown number of armed robbers, the company said.

"SBV Services can confirm that a cash centre robbery took place at the SBV Cash Centre Witbank on Monday morning 28 April... [and] is offering a R1 000 000 reward for information that leads to the successful arrests and conviction of the perpetrators," the company said in a statement.

Any members of the public who had any information regarding the incident were encouraged to call the company's hotline on 083 408 7029.

Mandela bust unveiled at Parliament

Cape Town - The bust of former president Nelson Mandela unveiled at Parliament on Monday shows how far South Africa's democracy has come in a short space of time, President Jacob Zuma said.

Not many years ago it would have been unthinkable, because under apartheid Mandela was considered an enemy of the state.

Speaking at the unveiling ceremony and launch of the 20 years of a democratic Parliament programme, Zuma said Parliament would continue to promote Mandela's legacy.

"By unveiling the statue, Parliament has declared we will continue to walk in Madiba's footsteps... and honour his legacy."

Zuma also paid tribute to former president FW de Klerk, who formed part of the unveiling ceremony.

"Through him we were able to make a breakthrough to create the conditions for our new democracy."

As the last president of apartheid South Africa, De Klerk had put the country first, and had played a pivotal role in averting a disaster in South Africa, he said.

Zuma urged South Africans to celebrate democracy and freedom by voting for the party of their choice in the May 7 general election.

Guests invited to the unveiling included Mandela family members, Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, South Africa’s first democratically elected National Assembly Speaker Frene Ginwala, Cabinet ministers and deputy ministers, provincial premiers, mayor of Cape Town Patricia de Lille, members of the diplomatic corps and civil society organisations’ representatives.

According to a statement issued by Parliament, the bust - in bronze on a granite plinth - depicts Mandela smiling slightly and looking out over Stalplein to the Parliament gates leading to Plein Street, opposite the steps of the National Assembly building.

It is large enough to be seen from Plein Street - 2.28m high when placed on its plinth - but does not dominate the space.

"It is hoped that the bust will provide a place for people to gather when they visit Parliament and that it will inspire public memory about the long and bitter road we have travelled to democracy and what still remains to be achieved," it said.

Oscar didn't take acting lessons - family respond

 

Oscar Pistorius 

Johannesburg - Paralympian Oscar Pistorius did not take acting lessons in preparation for his trial, as alleged by the former South African columnist, Jani Allan, his family said on Monday.

"We deny in the strongest terms the contents of her letter in as far it relates to our client and further deny that our client has undergone any 'acting lessons' or any form of emotional coaching," said family spokesperson Anneliese Burgess.

She was reacting to a blog entry by Allan, in which the writer alleged Pistorius took "acting lessons" in preparation for his trial.

"This type of comment makes a mockery of the enormous human tragedy involving the Steenkamp family and our client and his family."

Burgess said Allan had never met Pistorius and any knowledge she professed to have of him could only be described as "fictitious".

"Her suggestion that Mr Pistorius 'took acting lessons' is totally devoid of any truth."

Pistorius is accused of the murder of his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in his Pretoria townhouse on 14 February last year.

He shot her through the locked door of his toilet, apparently thinking she was an intruder.

The athlete is also charged with contraventions of 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.

The trial will resume on 5 May.

MH370 search at critical juncture: Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur - The effort to find missing flight MH370 is at a "very critical juncture", Malaysia's transport minister said on Saturday as authorities mull whether to reassess a challenging search of the Indian Ocean seabed that has so far found nothing.

"The search for today and tomorrow is at a very critical juncture. So I appeal for everybody around the world to pray and pray hard that we find something to work on," Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said.

Malaysia was already in discussions with private companies on the possible use of more deep-sea vessels if the mini-submarine currently searching the ocean floor fails to make a breakthrough, Hishammuddin added.

The Boeing 777, which vanished on 8 March carrying 239 people, is believed to have crashed in deep remote waters far off Western Australia, though no trace of it has been found.

The Australian-led search effort is relying on a single US Navy submersible sonar scanning device to scour an uncharted seabed at depths of around 4 500m or more.

Technical hitches, including the fact that the torpedo-shaped Bluefin-21 is operating at the extent of its depth limit, have made for a slow-going operation.

Launched from an Australian naval vessel, the device has so far made six deep-sea scanning runs but has detected nothing.

Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Thursday set a one-week deadline to locate the plane using the sub.

"We have pursued every possible lead presented to us at this stage, and with every passing day the search has become more difficult," Hishammuddin, who is heading up the Malaysian government's response to MH370, told reporters in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.

As the search and rescue effort - expected to be the costliest in aviation history - wears on, authorities have indicated alternative methods may be needed, including deeper-diving devices.

Hishammuddin reiterated this, saying adjustments "may include widening the scope of the search" and adding the number of deep-sea sonar vessels from commercial entities such as oil companies.

He stressed the search would not be abandoned.

"By Monday, I feel we will be in a better position to see what needs to be done," he said.

"As for today and tomorrow, we will use the assets that are already available there and pray that something positive comes out. And if that happens, that planning which I detailed to you, will not be required."

On Saturday up to 11 military aircraft and 12 ships were searching for the plane, Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) said, with a visual search being carried out over a total area of 50 200km².

The Bluefin-21 has so far scoured 133km²of the ocean floor and was carrying out its seventh mission, it added.

Nel queries expert's evidence "Oscar Trial"

Oscar Pistorius 

Pretoria - Evidence given by defence expert witness Roger Dixon came under scrutiny in the North Gauteng High Court during Oscar Pistorius's trial on Wednesday.

Dixon, who gave evidence on Tuesday and Wednesday on issues including fibres, wood splinters, the sound of a gun versus a cricket bat hitting a door, and how a bullet could ricochet off tiles, said as an expert he "only looked at the evidence".

"In my experience in the police, I feel I can interpret," he said.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel queried Dixon's qualifications and background, before asking specifically what type of expert Dixon, a qualified geologist, was.

"Are you a sound expert?" Nel asked.

"I would hope I'm a sound expert," he replied.

Acoustics

Nel repeated the question, referring to sound and acoustics specifically, to which Dixon said the test he did of the sound made by a cricket bat hitting a door and a gun firing was to determine whether the two could be confused.

"[The] expertise used was attempting to reconstruct the situation... I was not listening to myself making that sound," he said.

Nel asked who was involved in the sound test at a firing range. Dixon said the range officer, two ballistic experts, their wives, two people from the sound recording company, and himself.

"I think that's almost all."

After further probing on who was at the range, Dixon said the range was closed.

"I was concentrating on the test. I can't recall anyone there."

Darkness

Nel moved onto the test Dixon conducted on how dark it would have been in Pistorius's bedroom on 14 February last year, when his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was shot dead.

Dixon said: "The instruments that I used were my eyes."

Following further questioning from Nel he said he was not a light measuring expert, and had not used equipment to conduct the test.

Pistorius, who appeared to pay rapt attention to Nel's cross-examination of Dixon, is on trial for shooting Steenkamp through the locked door of a toilet cubicle in his Pretoria house.

Bullet casing

The bullet casing found in the toilet bowl next to a fatally wounded Steekamp could not have been from the one that hit her in the head, the court heard earlier.

Dixon said the weight of the bullet casing did not add up, testifying that the Black Talon bullet which hit Steenkamp weighed around 127 grains.

The one found in the toilet weighed 65.9 grains. One grain is about 0.06 grams. Dixon explained that adding this to that of the projectile found in Steenkamp's skull, the numbers did not add up, meaning it could not have been the same bullet.

He agreed with the testimony of a police official who earlier told the court that the first shot Pistorius fired probably struck Steenkamp's hip.

As Dixon spoke about the wounds on Steenkamp's body, Pistorius leaned forward and held his head in his hands. His sister, Aimee, who sat in the court gallery, was also visibly upset.

Pistorius is on trial for the murder of Steenkamp. He shot her dead through the locked toilet door of his home on Valentine's Day last year, apparently thinking she was an intruder.

Oscar excused from stand

 

Pretoria – Murder accused Oscar Pistorius was excused from the witness stand, with prosecutor Gerrie Nel having concluded his cross-examination on Tuesday morning.

Re-examining Pistorius, defence counsel Advocate Barry Roux asked him how he felt at the time he heard a noise that led him to believe there was an intruder in his house.

Pistorius said he felt helplessness, terror and feared for his and Reeva Steenkamp's life.

"I didn't think about pulling the trigger," he said.

He immediately followed this by stating that he pulled the trigger.

Pistorius has been charged with murdering Steenkamp when he shot her dead through a locked toilet door in his Pretoria house on 14 February last year.

He says he mistook her for an intruder.

Roux then asked for a Valentine's card and letter to be given to Pistorius.

The card, from Reeva Steenkamp to Pistorius and from "the day of the accident" as stated by the Paralympian, was read out by Roux to the court.

It concluded "I think this is a good day to say I love".

Roux ended his re-examination on this note.

One of the assessors asked Pistorius whether Steenkamp had access to the alarm, whether she would have been able to turn it off, and the light in the toilet.

Pistorius said the toilet light was not working and was not sure whether Steenkamp would have been able to access the alarm.

The Paralympian also faces three charges of contravening the Firearms Control Act, on which he has also denied guilty

Malaysia jet search area too deep for submarine

Perth - The search area for the missing Malaysian jet has proved too deep for a robotic submarine which was hauled back to the surface of the Indian Ocean less than half way through its first seabed hunt for wreckage and the all-important black boxes, authorities said on Tuesday.

Search crews sent the Bluefin 21 deep into the Indian Ocean on Monday to begin scouring the seabed for the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 after failing for six days to detect any signals believed to be from its black boxes.

But after only six hours of its planned 16-hour mission on the sea bed, the autonomous underwater vehicle exceeded its maximum depth limit of 4 500m and its built-in safety feature returned it to the surface, the search co-ordination centre said in a statement on Tuesday.

What if anything it might have discovered during the six-hour search was still being analysed, it added.

The Bluefin 21 will resume the search on Tuesday when weather conditions permit, it said.

Search authorities knew that the primary wreckage from Flight MH370 was likely lying at the limit of the Bluefin's dive capabilities. Deeper diving submersibles have been evaluated, but none is yet available in the search area.

Silt

The sub would have been programmed to return to the surface once it exceeded the 4 500m limit, but a safety margin would also have been included to protect the device from damage if it went a bit deeper, said Stefan Williams, a professor of marine robotics at the University of Sydney.

"Maybe some areas where they are doing the survey are a little bit deeper than they are expecting," he said. "They may not have very reliable prior data for the area, so they have a general idea. But there may be some variability on the sea floor that they also can't see from the surface."

Meanwhile, officials were investigating an oil slick about 5 500m from the area where the last underwater sounds were detected, said Angus Houston, the head of a joint agency co-ordinating the search off Australia's west coast.

Crews have collected an oil sample and are sending it back to Australia for analysis, a process that will take several days. Houston said it does not appear to be from any of the ships in the area, but cautioned against jumping to conclusions about its source.

The Bluefin 21 can create a three-dimensional sonar map of any debris on the ocean floor. But the search in this area is more challenging because the seabed is covered in silt that could potentially cover part of the plane.

"What they're going to have to be looking for is contrast between hard objects, like bits of a fuselage, and that silty bottom," Williams said. 

"With the types of sonars they are using, if stuff is sitting up on top of the silt, say a wing was there, you could likely see that ... but small items might sink down into the silt and be covered and then it's going to be a lot more challenging."

‘New to man’

The search moved below the surface after crews picked up a series of underwater sounds over the past two weeks that were consistent with signals from an aircraft's black boxes, which record flight data and cockpit conversations. 

The devices emit "pings" so they can be more easily found, but their batteries only last about a month and are now believed dead.

"Today is day 38 of the search," Houston told a news conference on Monday. "We haven't had a single detection in six days, so I guess it's time to go under water."

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott raised hopes last week when he said authorities were "very confident" the four strong underwater signals that were detected were from the black boxes on Flight 370, which disappeared on 8 March during a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing with 239 people on board, mostly Chinese.

But Houston warned that while the signals are a promising lead, the public needs to be realistic about the challenges facing search crews in the extremely remote, deep patch of ocean - an area he called "new to man".

"I would caution you against raising hopes that the deployment of the autonomous underwater vehicle will result in the detection of the aircraft wreckage. It may not," Houston said. "However, this is the best lead we have, and it must be pursued vigorously. Again, I emphasize that this will be a slow and painstaking process."

‘No visual objects’

Houston, a retired Australian chief air marshal, called the search "one of the largest search and rescue, search and recovery operations that I've seen in my lifetime."

The Ocean Shield had been dragging a US Navy device called a towed pinger locator through the water to listen for any sounds from the black boxes' beacons.

The Bluefin sub takes six times longer to cover the same area as the ping locator, and the two devices can't be used at the same time. Crews had been hoping to detect additional signals before sending down the sub, so they could triangulate the source and zero in on where the black boxes may be.

The submarine takes 24 hours to complete each mission: two hours to dive to the bottom, 16 hours to search the seafloor, two hours to return to the surface, and four hours to download the data, Houston said.

The black boxes could contain the key to unravelling the mystery of what happened to Flight 370. Investigators believe the plane went down in the southern Indian Ocean based on a flight path calculated from its contacts with a satellite and an analysis of its speed and fuel capacity. But they still don't know why.

But Houston said the visual search operation will end in the next two to three days. Officials haven't found a single piece of debris confirmed to be from the plane, and he said the chances that any would be found have "greatly diminished".

"We've got no visual objects," he said. "The only thing we have left at this stage is the four transmissions and an oil slick in the same vicinity, so we will investigate those to their conclusion."

Up to 11 planes and as many ships were to join Tuesday's search over 62 000 square kilometres, 2 200km northwest of Perth.

Oscar Pistorius accused of crocodile tears

Pretoria - The prosecution accused Oscar Pistorius of feigning emotion to dodge tough questions about the death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, as his second week of testimony in the murder trial began on Monday.

Frustrated with Pistorius's frequent crying in the witness box, prosecutor Gerrie Nel toughened his questioning and accused the Paralympic star of crocodile tears.

"Mr Pistorius, you're not using your emotional state to escape, are you?" he said after the athlete broke down under questioning on one of several occasions on Monday.

"You're getting frustrated because your version is improbable and you're getting emotional," he said.

During six days of testimony, Pistorius has often appeared harrowed when evidence has turned to the moments before and after he fired the four shots that killed Steenkamp.

On Monday he again burst into tears when he re-enacted his high pitched call for supposed intruders to "get the fuck out of my house!"

Nel claimed Pistorius was crying because he knew he was shouting at Steenkamp and not a supposed intruder, putting the State's case that she was preparing to leave after an argument when she was shot.

"You know exactly, you fired at Reeva. These other versions cannot work, you fired at her, you did. Why are you getting emotional now?" Nel said accusingly.

"I did not fire at Reeva," he said, weeping and forcing another adjournment.

Pistorius often looked pale in the witness stand, his shoulders hunched forward.

His lawyer at one point intervened to ask Judge Thokozile Masipa to prevent emotive questions from being asked and re-asked.

Which defence?

Pistorius's defence was picked apart throughout the day.

He has repeatedly claimed that he fired the shots accidentally, even though he feared there was an intruder behind the door.

"My Lady I didn't have time to think. I heard this noise, and I thought it was somebody coming out to attack me so I fired my firearm," he told the court.

Nel responded: "Your defence has now changed, sir, from putative self-defence to involuntary action. Is that what you're telling me?"

"I don't understand the law, Ma'am, what I can reply and tell the court is what I'm asked and I can reply as to what I thought," Pistorius said.

During the relentless back-and-forth, Pistorius and Nel at times appeared to come close to bickering.

Nel accused the athlete of concocting evidence in his defence to cover up his girlfriend's murder.

"It's the State's case, Mr Pistorius, that she wanted to leave and that you weren't sleeping, you were both awake," said Nel.

"That's not correct my lady, that's untrue," Pistorius replied softly.

"There was an argument," Nel said, drawing another denial.

Nel has openly called his version "a lie".

Pistorius will likely remain on the stand for another few days as a witness in his own defence.

His lawyers have said they will call up to 17 witnesses, including ballistics experts.

The double amputee gained world-wide fame for running on two carbon fibre blades at the Paralympics and 2012 London Games.

His legs were amputated below the knee shortly after he was born without calf bones.

The shooting brought his career to an abrupt halt, but die-hard fans insisting on his innocence have attended the trial from time to time.

On Friday a fan handed him a bouquet of flowers as he came out of court, while on Monday three women outside the building held white balloons with "Oscar" and "Love" scribbled in permanent marker.

Originally scheduled to last three weeks, the trial on Monday entered its sixth week and has been extended until 16 May.

Amazon offers staff $5 000 to quit

Los Angeles - Online retailer Amazon is offering employees who aren't happy working for the growing company $5 000 to quit. 

"The goal is to encourage folks to take a moment and think about what they really want. In the long-run, an employee staying somewhere they don't want to be isn't healthy for the employee or the company," Amazon chief executive Jeffrey Bezos wrote in a letter to share holders. 

There is no indication that the offer is a back-handed attempt to trim the workforce of Amazon, which is estimated at 109 000, according to the Wall Street Journal.

A company statement says the programme is outlined under the headline that reads, "Please don't take this offer." 

The programme is called "pay to quit" and offers $2 000 for the first year to employees who want to leave, then steps up the amount in $1 000 increments in each subsequent year until reaching $5 000, explained the statement. The offer will be made to associates once a year.

The tactic is used by other companies with the goal of getting poorly performing employees to leave with money in their pocket and filling those jobs with more talented employees. 

In the statement Bezos credits online retailer Zappos with the invention of the idea for the programme.

Watch your language Mr Nel - judge Masipa (Oscar Pistorious Trial)

Oscar Pistorius 

Judge Thokozile Masipa reprimanded prosecutor Gerrie Nel on Friday after he called murder accused Oscar Pistorius a liar.

"Watch your language, Mr Nel. You don't call the witness a liar, not while he is in the witness box," she said.

Pistorius was in the witness stand for the fifth day. Nel was cross-examining the athlete on where certain items were in his bedroom.

Pistorius said he picked up a pair of jeans belonging to his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp to cover a LCD light when he heard the bathroom window open and was convinced it was an intruder.

Nel said he was keeping a list of the things Pistorius said were later moved.

The list included the police opening the bedroom curtains wider, moving the fans, switching the lights on, putting the duvet on the floor and ensuring the denim was on the duvet.

Pistorius earlier said the duvet was on the bed and he had the jeans in his hands and dropped it so the jeans could not be on the duvet.

Nel said: "If that is your version of how it was on the day, you are lying. No one knew you did something with the jeans. Why move it."

Advocate Barry Roux for Pistorius, objected and said one could not in fact state that the jeans were on the duvet.

There were more photos of when the jeans were moved.

"It's unfair to make a point to the accused to say it was on top... There is no evidence that it was not on top except for the photo," said Roux.

Masipa said she was doubtful and asked for the photo to be zoomed in.

Pistorius has been charged with the premeditated murder of Steenkamp. She was shot through the locked toilet door of his Pretoria home on 14 February last year.

He says he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder.

Pistorius has pleaded not guilty and in his plea statement denied he had argued with her shortly before the shooting.

SAHRC asked to probe Oscar's cross-examination

Barry Roux and Oscar Pistorius in court. 

The SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has been asked to probe the manner in which State prosecutor Gerrie Nel conducted his cross-examination of murder accused Oscar Pistorius.

"We have received an e-mail with an intention to lodge a complaint over the utterances made in court," SAHRC spokesperson Isaac Mangena said on Friday.

"We have acknowledged and asked the complainant to lodge a formal complaint by filling out a form. We will then assess the complaint as per our complaints handling procedure to [decide] whether it is something for the commission to investigate or not," said Mangena.

The complainant, Jan Landman, a former commissioner of the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious, and Linguistic Communities, requested that the SAHRC investigate and rule whether Nel was permitted to refer to Pistorius as a "liar" as he cross-examined him.

In the complaint Landman sent to the SAHRC, he said it was his opinion that in calling Pistorius a liar, Nel infringed on his right to a fair trial.

He claimed Nel further contravened Pistorius's right to be presumed innocent and his right to freedom of expression, and to ensure his dignity was respected and protected.

"It is in the public interest that the Human Rights Commission as a matter of urgency should investigate to what extent the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of SA (Chapter 2) is contravened," said Landman.

During court proceedings at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Friday, Nel was reprimanded by presiding Judge Thokozile Masipa.

"Watch your language Mr Nel," said Masipa.

"You don't call the witness a liar, not while he is in the witness box," she said.

Pistorius, who was a world renowned Paralympic athlete, is on trial for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

He shot her dead through a locked toilet door at his Pretoria home on Valentine's Day last year.

He claims to have mistaken her for an intruder.

Nel is arguing that it was premeditated murder.

Fan 'blows away' Oscar's version

"Blade Runner" Oscar Pistorius lied about fetching a fan from his balcony before killing his girlfriend, the prosecutor in his murder trial said on Thursday.

In his second day under cross-examination, Pistorius told the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria he did not deliberately fire the shots that blasted through a locked bathroom door and hit Reeva Steenkamp in the hip, arm and head.

"Do I remember firing four shots at the door? No, I don't... I remember pulling the trigger and rounds going into the door," Pistorius said.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel demanded to know if Pistorius had fired his 9mm pistol deliberately.

"I didn't mean to pull the trigger so in that sense it was an accident," Pistorius replied, after earlier also protesting his innocence on two lesser charges relating to him discharging guns in public.

Pistorius notably claimed that he never touched the trigger of a friend's Glock pistol that went off in his hand in a packed restaurant in January 2013, a few weeks before he killed Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine's Day.

"I know my finger wasn't on the trigger," Pistorius said.

But the prosecutor countered that it was an indisputable fact that it was impossible to set off that particular make of firearm without pressure on the trigger and Pistorius was therefore trying to convince the court of a "miracle".

"I'm putting it to you that you are lying," Nel said.

This became a refrain as he relentlessly sought to dismantle Pistorius's defence, and turned to the Paralympian's claim that on 14 February he was busy moving an electronic fan when he heard a suspicious noise that prompted him to fetch his firearm and fire at the door in panic.

According to Pistorius, he had brought the fans into the bedroom, closed the sliding doors leading onto his balcony and drawn the curtains.

He has told the court that once he realised with dread that it may have been Steenkamp he shot, and not an intruder, he ran onto the balcony and shouted for help three times.

Fan blocking door

Nel asked Pistorius to look at a police photograph of his bedroom taken in the aftermath of the shooting, showing a tripod fan in front of the open sliding doors, and to spot the problem it presented.

After some pause, Pistorius said: "The fan couldn't possibly have been there because it's in the way of the doors opening."

Nel replied: "Indeed, indeed. I agree. Because your version is a lie. You never closed the curtains in the first place... That door was open when you and the deceased got into an argument."

At this, Pistorius's defence lawyer Barry Roux objected, saying the State had no evidence of an argument but Nel said he would produce circumstantial evidence to prove it.

The defence has made a case that the police tampered with evidence, and Pistorius returned to the argument in his testimony on Thursday, telling Nel investigators had moved several objects in his Pretoria home.

Nel asked: "Let's just sum this up. A policeman moved two fans, put the duvet on the floor and opened the curtains wider than it should be?"

Pistorius responded: "That is correct, My Lady," prompting Nel to ask whether he suspected conspiracy.

The prosecutor also suggested he would prove that Pistorius was lying about connecting the two fans to an extension lead next to his bed, partly because their cables were not long enough.

Pistorius said it was possible if the extension cord were pulled deeper into the room.

Nel stated emphatically that it had not - possibly linking to his statement to Pistorius on Wednesday that one of the two plug openings had already been taken up by the charger for his hair clippers, which was visible next to his bed on photographs.

"You are trying but it is not working. Your version is so improbable that nobody would ever reasonably think it is true."

‘Self-centred and abusive’

Earlier, he had called into question Pistorius's character.

Nel said the athlete who was seen as role model around the world had been self-centred and abusive towards Steenkamp.

He read out transcripts of text message that spoke of turmoil in the relationship and asked why Pistorius responded with recriminations when Steenkamp complained that his criticism had left her feeling hurt and humiliated.

"I'm the girl who fell in love with you and wanted to tell you this weekend," Nel quoted Steenkamp as writing, and asked Pistorius why he did not reply to that sentiment.

"Wasn't that a significant event in your relationship? Why didn't you deal with that? You didn't care.

"You blamed her. Because it's all about Mr Pistorius. That's what your relationship was about."

Nel also accused Pistorius of subjecting the Steenkamp family to a public spectacle by starting his testimony with a tearful apology from the stand, but stopping short of saying he was sorry for shooting dead the blonde model.

"The words 'I'm sorry I killed your daughter' were never in your apology... You didn't think how they would feel sitting in a public court."

"Why weren't you humble enough to do it in private?"

Last lies you get to tell - Oscar's ex tweets

Barry Roux and Oscar Pistorius in court. 

Johannesburg - Most online chats on the Oscar Pistorius murder trial on Tuesday focused on a Twitter post by his former girlfriend, Samantha Taylor.

This was according to information compiled by media monitoring group, Data Driven Insight (DDI).

Taylor, who has testified in the trial, wrote: "Last lies you get to tell. You better make it worth your while," on her Twitter page earlier this morning.

She later deleted the tweet. It had already been retweeted hundreds of times.

While delivering her testimony several weeks ago, Taylor said she and Pistorius broke up because he had cheated on her with his now dead girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Steenkamp was shot dead through a locked bathroom door by Pistorius at his home on Valentine's Day last year.

He claimed to have mistaken her for an intruder.

Tuesday marked Pistorius's second day in the dock.

While his testimony has covered some important issues, most of it has been dominated by him breaking down.

DDI said Pistorius had spent 17.59% of his testimony breaking down.

Around 9.53% of the testimony was dominated by him talking about his late mother.

The DDI said the information was compiled from data analysed from Monday until midday on Tuesday.

Rand hits strongest level in 2014

Johannesburg - The rand hit its strongest level against the dollar this year in Tuesday's early trading session as positive momentum continued for riskier emerging market currencies.

At 08:31 the rand hit R10.4645, its strongest level this year against the dollar and over half a percent stronger on the day, from Monday's New York close of R10.5295.

"It is emerging markets strengthening really, it is a continuation of the trend, we were struggling to get through 10.50 but we have come in this morning and broken it," said Jim Bryson, a rand trader from Rand Merchant Bank.

"Most emerging markets and other high-risk currencies are like the rand — pushing at the stronger-end of the recent range," Rand Merchant Bank added in a note.

The currency continued gains spurred by US jobs data that came in slightly below market expectations on Friday, which saw the rand break a three-month high.

Investors will be watching the release of the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Saccci) March business confidence index to gauge economic sentiment. The indicator rose in February despite subdued economic activity.

Government bonds also firmed with yields for the benchmark 2026 paper falling 7 basis points to 8.31%, while the 2015 note was down 4 basis points to 6.695%.

Dewani on his way to SA

Shrien Dewani 

London - British businessman Shrien Dewani was on Monday finally extradited from Britain to South Africa to stand trial for allegedly ordering a hit on his wife Anni. 

Anni Dewani was killed during a staged hijacking in Gugulethu, Cape Town, in 2010, while they were on honeymoon. 

"Shrien Prakash Dewani, 34, has today, 7 April, at approximately 20:00 [21:00 GMT] been extradited from the UK to South Africa," said a Scotland Yard statement.

Dewani will make his first court appearance in South Africa in the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town on Tuesday.

He would appear before Judge President John Hlophe at 11:30. 

The justice department declined to reveal which exit he would use to leave the Cape Town International Airport or his expected landing time, citing security concerns.

Dewani claims he and Anni were kidnapped at gunpoint as they drove through Gugulethu in a taxi.

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

Dewani has denied any part in the murder and has been fighting extradition the United Kingdom until he has recovered from mental health problems, including severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The high court will have the final say on whether he is fit to stand trial, a justice department official said on Monday.

"The court obviously decides that after hearing counsel on the matter as usually happens in court," provincial justice head Hishaam Mohamed told journalists in a technical briefing at the court.

Justice department spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga said at the briefing Dewani would be kept at a medical facility in Cape Town, but declined to give further details.

Mohamed said Dewani would be taken straight to the high court in a "one-stop justice process", where he would be charged with conspiracy to commit murder and defeating the ends of justice.

Mhaga reminded the media that Dewani had the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

"It is for this reason that there will be no provision for him to be photographed prior to his court appearance," Mhaga said.

"Media will have an opportunity to film him in court, but as soon as the judge walks in, all cameras should be off and removed from the courtroom."

Oscar tormented by memories of Reeva's death

Oscar Pistorius 

Pretoria - His voice shaking, Oscar Pistorius took the witness stand on Monday for the first time, testifying that he was trying to protect the girlfriend he killed and that he became so tormented by memories of the fatal shooting and panic attacks that he once hid helplessly in a closet.

Pistorius also offered an apology to the family of Reeva Steenkamp, who died from multiple wounds after the double-amputee runner shot her through a closed toilet door last year in his home. He said he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder.

Prosecutors allege he killed her after an argument.

"There hasn't been a moment since this tragedy happened that I haven't thought about your family," the athlete said at the murder trial as Steenkamp's mother, June, looked impassively at him in the courtroom.

"I was simply trying to protect Reeva. I can promise that when she went to bed that night she felt loved," Pistorius said.

Pistorius's display of anguish and remorse was a marked departure from the testimony of some prosecution witnesses whose accounts painted a picture of the runner as a hothead with a jealous streak, an inflated sense of entitlement and an obsession with guns in the months before he killed Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model.

He has yet to be cross-examined about the shooting in the early hours of 14 February 2013, and that testimony is likely to be the centrepiece of a trial being broadcast on television and followed around the world.

Pistorius was charged with premeditated murder and faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted. Some analysts think the judge, who will decide the case, will consider a lesser charge such as homicide, which could still send him to prison for years.

Nightmares

Pistorius, 27, spoke in a soft, quavering voice at the start of his testimony, forcing Judge Thokozile Masipa to ask him to speak more loudly.

He stood at first, stifling sobs as he said he was on antidepressant medication and sometimes woke from nightmares to the "smell of blood."

Defence lawyer Barry Roux, who had aggressively challenged prosecution witnesses since the trial began 3 March, led Pistorius gently through events in a life that was held up, in the runner's heyday, as an inspiring tale.

Pistorius was born without fibula bones because of a congenital defect, and his legs were amputated when he was 11 months old.

 He ran on carbon-fibre blades and is a multiple Paralympic medalist. He also competed at the London Olympics but didn't win a medal.

Pistorius described the positive role of his mother, Sheila, and his grief when she died when Pistorius was a teenager.

He spoke about the sacrifices he had made for his athletic achievements, his work with charity and how religion was important to him.

Pistorius said he has been taking antidepressant medication since the week after he killed Steenkamp and has trouble sleeping. He described one night when he went to hide in a closet after waking up in "a panic."

"I climbed into a cupboard and I phoned my sister to come and sit by me, which she did for a while," Pistorius said.

Steenkamp was ‘a blessing’

His voice broke again, and he struggled to speak when he described how Steenkamp was "a blessing" in his life.

 Yet in cellphone messages revealed by the prosecution, Steenkamp had once said that Pistorius scared her.

Pistorius will return on Tuesday to continue testifying after the judge granted an early adjournment because she said Pistorius looked "exhausted”.

Pistorius said he had not slept the night before.

"I'm just very tired at the moment.... I think it's a lot of things going through my mind," he said. "The weight of this is extremely overbearing."

Pistorius also described how he felt vulnerable to crime, an attempt to explain his claim that he reacted to what he thought was a dangerous intruder in his bathroom by shooting with his 9 mm pistol.

He said his mother slept with a gun under a pillow, and that his family had been hit by house break-ins and carjackings over the years.

He said he had sometimes been followed by unidentified people while driving home.

Pistorius also referred to an incident in which he was allegedly assaulted at a social function in late 2012 and had to have stitches on the back of his head.

Prosecutors have provided a contrasting picture with evidence indicating that he had been reckless with firearms in public, allegedly shooting his gun out of a sunroof on a road and asking a friend to take the blame for him when a gun was fired under a table in a busy restaurant weeks before he killed Steenkamp.

Pathologist testifies first for personal reasons

Oscar Pistorius outside court. 

Pretoria - The defence in Oscar Pistorius’s murder trial will start its case with testimony from a pathologist who reportedly worked on the investigation into the Brett Kebble murder. 

Defence lawyer Brian Webber said pathologist Jan Botha had "personal reasons for why he has to take the stand first".

Botha had worked on Kebble’s autopsy and also investigated apartheid-era killings, eNCA reported.

The star Paralympian is then expected to take the stand.

Pistorius will give the court his first account of why he shot dead his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine's Day in 2013.

Pistorius has cut a lonely figure since his trial started on 3 March, saying little since his "not guilty" plea besides the occasional "yes, milady" to Judge Thokozile Masipa.

How will Pistorius hold up?

How the double amputee known as the "Blade Runner" will hold up during the state's cross-examination may prove a turning point in the case.

In the five weeks since the trial began, Pistorius has appeared fragile and annoyed, frequently crying in court and being physically sick when the gruesome details of Steenkamp's death were discussed.

Pistorius, who denies murder, has to explain why he fired four shots at Steenkamp through a locked toilet door at his home. 

To do this, he has hired an extensive team of forensic experts to describe the events in the early hours of 14 February 2013, including an American animation firm that will visually depict the crime scene using three-dimensional computer generated images. 

Ill assessor

The experts will have to cast doubt on the state's version of events, including testimony from witnesses who said they heard a woman screaming on the night of the murder, which would show Pistorius knew his target was Steenkamp. 

Pistorius says he shot his girlfriend through a bathroom door after mistaking her for an intruder.

The judge adjourned the trial a week ago after a judicial assistant fell ill. Media interest in the case has slowly been declining, but Pistorius's testimony is likely to grab global headlines.

The Pistorius testimony is expected to be particularly difficult for Steenkamp's mother, June, who for the last weeks has sat through gruesome evidence, sometimes leaving the courtroom as graphic photos of the bloody crime scene were shown to the court. 

Pistorius spotted at upmarket restaurant

When asked if the Steenkamp family is frustrated by the slow court proceedings, Dup De Bruyn, a lawyer representing the family, said no. "I've schooled them well," he said. "They take it as it comes."

The Steenkamps are seeking an out-of-court settlement with Pistorius for financial compensation following their daughter's death, though negotiations have been postponed while the case is in court. 

"That has been put on the back burner," said De Bruyn, who is based in Port Elizabeth.

Pistorius was recently spotted by local media lunching with his lawyers at an upmarket restaurant in Johannesburg. 

Wearing a cream jacket and light blue shirt, the athlete laughed as he ate, a marked difference from his usual stressed appearance in court, where he is seen grinding his jaw throughout the proceedings. 

The trial is slated to run to at least mid-May.