Oscar Pistorius can race, trial or no trial

By Rosemary Westwood - Thursday, March 28, 2013 at 2:04 PM - 0 Comments

Themba Hadebe/AP

Sprinter Oscar Pistorius could take to the track at the summer’s World Championships—despite facing trial for allegedly murdering his girlfriend.

A South African judge ruled Thursday that the track star’s bail conditions allow him to leave the country as long as he provides an itinerary at least a week before leaving, according to an Associated Press report. His passport will be held by the court when he’s not jetting off for international competitions, according to the ruling, which included a number of wins for Pistorius’s legal team. Among them: Pistorius can now return to the home where he shot girlfriend and model Reeva Steenkamp on Feb. 14; he does not have to be regularly supervised by a probation order; he does not have to report regularly to a police station; and he can drink alcohol.

Peet van Zyl, Pistorius’s agent, told the news agency that the sprinting star known as the Blade Runner hasn’t trained for two months and will make his own decision about whether and when to start racing again.

“He has no desire to compete now but it might change and it will change,” defense lawyer Barry Roux told the court during the appeal hearing.

Prosecutors opposed easing bail restrictions. Pistorius has been out on a $108,000 bail after admitting to the shooting. He has claimed it was an accident. Prosecutors argue he intentionally killed Steenkamp after a quarrel.

Lawyers representing Oscar Pistorius ask for looser bail conditions

By Emily Senger - Monday, March 11, 2013 at 8:45 AM - 0 Comments

Lawyers representing Olympian Oscar Pistorius are asking a judge to lighten up restrictive bail conditions imposed on the track athlete as he awaits his trial for the pre-meditated murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

The appeal was filed Friday in Pretoria, the South African capital, reports The Associated Press.

Specifically, the documents challenge the bail conditions that require Pistorius to surrender his passport and all travel documents. They also challenge the condition preventing all alcohol use.

Pistorius also wants to be able to access his property where Steenkamp was shot, but only after the investigation there is complete. Continue…

Oscar Pistorius: The strange and dangerous world of the blade runner

By Jonathon Gatehouse and Stephanie Findlay - Friday, March 1, 2013 at 1:35 PM - 0 Comments

Thembani Makhubele/Reuters

It was, by all accounts, an accident. Although not one that Oscar Pistorius was willing to take responsibility for. Out for dinner with his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp and a bunch of other rich, young athletes and hangers-on at a trendy Johannesburg restaurant this past January, the man they call the Blade Runner was admiring someone else’s gun, when it suddenly went off. The bullet slammed into the floor just centimetres from the foot of Kevin Lerena, an up-and-coming heavyweight boxer. “The KO Kid,” as he is known, would later explain to reporters that the pistol’s safety catch had somehow snagged on Pistorius’s pants, and that the world’s most famous disabled sprinter had been more than contrite. “He apologized to me for days afterwards,” said Lerena. But when the restaurant manager hurried over to determine the source of the ear-shattering explosion, everyone at the table denied knowledge. And none of the other patrons came forward, so the police were never called. Being a national hero and internationally recognized celebrity apparently buys one a lot of leeway in South Africa.

But Pistorius’s next gun incident could hardly be swept under the table. Early in the morning of Feb. 14, the 26-year-old pumped four shots through a locked toilet door at his mansion in a high-security gated community outside the city, striking Steenkamp three times. Minutes later, she would die in his arms.

Pistorius’s version is that he awoke in the dark, heard a noise and concluded that an intruder was in the house. Arming himself, he hobbled into the bathroom on the stumps of his legs, and when his shouts went unanswered, opened fire. It was only when he returned to the bedroom and noticed that his 29-year-old girlfriend was missing that the truth dawned.

The police contend it was premeditated murder. Neighbours saw the lights on and heard the pair fighting, they say. Ballistics evidence shows the shots were fired downward, suggesting the athlete was wearing his prostheses at the time. And he has a history of violent and threatening behaviour, including past allegations of domestic assault.

It was just seven months ago, during the London 2012 Games, that Pistorius was being feted as a global inspiration for becoming the first amputee to compete in an Olympic track event. That the seven-time Paralympic medallist wasn’t nearly as fast as the hype predicted, finishing last in his 400-m semifinal, hardly mattered. The media, and public, couldn’t get enough of the polite and modest South African who shattered so many stereotypes. So too with sponsors like Nike, Oakley sunglasses, and French designer Thierry Mugler, who had already signed the photogenic Pistorius to endorsement deals totalling more than $2 million a year. Lately, he had been tooling around Johannesburg in a new silver convertible MP4-12C Spider McLaren supercar, worth $405,000. Although, as always, he refused to avail himself of the handicapped-parking spaces.

Now, he is suddenly notorious. Within hours of his arrest, M-Net, a South African TV broadcaster, starting pulling down Pistorius’s image from its billboards. Nike, Oakley and other sponsors have all cancelled their contracts. His bail hearing—where, unlike in Canada, all the evidence could be published—quickly degenerated into an O.J. Simpson-style legal circus, much to the delight of the crush of international media packed into Pretoria Magistrates Court. (An electrician was kept on standby, lest the straining air-conditioning system short out and plunge the building into darkness.)

With his father, sister and brother sitting behind him, Pistorius wept frequently during the week of hearings. Yet Steenkamp’s family, who stayed away, complained that, beyond a bouquet of flowers, he has shown no inclination to explain himself to them. In a two-hour oral ruling delivered Feb. 22, Desmond Nair, the chief magistrate, found fault with the sloppy police investigation of the killing (the lead detective has been removed from the case after it emerged that he himself is facing attempted murder charges for indiscriminately firing his gun at a minibus during a car chase). But Nair also underlined the wide gaps in logic in the runner’s tale of how he came to kill his girlfriend. Still, before setting Pistorius free on $115,000 bail and under condition that he surrender his passport, abstain from alcohol and possess no guns, Nair granted one of the country’s most famous sons a further favour, clearing photographers and camera operators from the room. The click of shutters and flash bursts every time he stood in the dock was too distracting and humilitating, the magistrate said, as though Pistorius were “some kind of species the world has never seen before.” It was as if the judge hadn’t been keeping up with the news.

There was one rule above all others in the house where Oscar Pistorius grew up: no one was allowed to say “I can’t.” It applied to his older brother, Carl. It applied to his little sister, Aimee. And it applied, surely a little unfairly at times, to Oscar.

After he was born without fibula, the main weight-bearing bone, in both his legs, Oscar underwent a double amputation just below the knees at the age of 11 months. It wasn’t the only route—a series of reconstructive surgeries was also an option—but it was the one his parents, Henke and Sheila, judged to be the surest path to a normal life. So Oscar learned to walk on his stumps, began running on his first set of prostheses at 17 months, and has never really slowed down since.

Carl Pistorius faces charges in 2010 death of motorcyclist

By macleans.ca - Sunday, February 24, 2013 at 6:05 AM - 0 Comments

The Pistorius name tops headlines from South Africa Sunday morning, though at this hour it is Carl Pistorius who is making news.

The family’s lawyer has confirmed reports that the Olympian’s older brother faces charges related to the death of a female motorcyclist in a 2010 traffic accident, the Guardian says.

Lawyer Kenny Oldwage acknowledged that Carl Pistorius faces charges of “culpable homicide” and is due in court next month.

Oscar Pistorius, celebrity logic and the double-edged blade

By Anne Kingston - Saturday, February 23, 2013 at 11:22 PM - 0 Comments

Celebrity logic—that distorted rationale that applies to the rich and famous— was on full display Friday when South African magistrate Desmond Nair ruled Oscar Pistorius, charged with premeditated murder, had not been proven to be a flight risk or to have a “propensity for violence” as he released the star athlete on bail of one-million rand ($110,079). Apparently the fact Pistorius fired four bullets into a bathroom door without warning and with intent to kill—be it an intruder (his version) or the model Reeva Steenkamp (the prosecution’s version)—doesn’t count as a “propensity for violence” or any sort of public threat.

Such is Pistorius’s blinding celebrity wattage that his history of alleged threatening, reckless behaviour rhymed off  at the hearing didn’t sway the judge either. But, then again, why would it? None ever amounted to more than allegations. In September 2009, Pistorius spent a night in custody being charged with assaulting 19-year-old Cassidy Taylor-Memory during a party at his house; he was accused of slamming a door on her, charges dropped due to lack of evidence. Last November he was  accused of threatening to assault a man in an altercation about a woman at a racetrack, and told another man that he would “break his legs.” Pistorius has a record of public gunplay as well: In January, he accidentally discharged a gun in a Johannesburg restaurant, then asked its owner, a friend, to take responsibility for the incident. More recently, he applied to increase his own gun arsenal by six, presumably to protect himself against the country’s infamous gun culture. A glowing 2012 New York Times profile, that referred to Pistorius  as “risk-taking” and “a little bit crazy,” quotes him saying he goes to the gun range when he can’t sleep.

Reports from the night of Steenkamp’s Valentine’s murder also have violent undertones, though again nothing has been proven. Neighbours allege they saw lights and heard fighting in the house, accounts disputed by the defence. The morning after the shooting, police spokeswoman Denise Beukes revealed there had “previously been incidents at the home of Mr. Pistorius—allegations of a domestic nature.” “Domestic” problems, clearly,  aren’t a “public” threat.  Beukes added the national hero would get “no special treatment whatever,” notwithstanding presumably the international press conference she was currently holding.

But claims that Pistorius’s vaunted status conferred special treatment are long-standing. In 2009, after he crashed his speedboat on the Vaal River, sustaining serious head injuries, the police investigated possible reckless and negligent behaviour on his part but decided not to prosecute. The Afrikaans-language newspaper Beeld reported police found empty bottles of alcohol on the boat, but didn’t test Pistorius for alcohol use. Shortly after, Pistorius stopped press photographers from taking pictures of a car accident in which a friend knocked over a pedestrian who died on the scene. Asked why they couldn’t, the athlete answered, “Because I am Oscar Pistorius,” according to Beeld.  Now questions have been raised about how Pistorius obtained a 2010 licence for the very handgun that killed Steenkamp, given his history with the law.

The answer is simple: He is Oscar Pistorius, an athlete who occupies a different plane in the public imagination than other revered sports icons—more than Lance Armstrong, more than Tiger Woods, more than OJ. He’s the Blade Runner, an supra-human character who awed and inspired—and replaced the pejorative “disabled” with “differently abled” when he participated in the Olympics medal in 2011. Thus the cognitive dissonance now, seen in this recent headlines this one, which refers to Pistorius as a former “seemingly perfect hero,” despite years of contradictory evidence.

That includes Pistorius’s famously bad behaviour after placing second to Brazilian Alan Fonteles Cardoso Oliveira in the T44 200m final at the 2012 London Paralympics, where he also won gold. He lashed out publicly, claiming Oliverira’s blades were too long and he’d cheated. At first, the IPC threatened to punish Pistorius. Then, after he apologized, they rewarded him by putting him on the shortlist for the Whang Youn Dai Achievement Award as a competitor ”who is fair, honest and is uncompromising in his or her values and prioritizes the promotion of the Paralympic Movement above personal recognition.” When a journalist questioned the IPC communications director about Pistorius’s being included, he was told: “Oscar had done so much for the Paralympic Movement in the build-up to these Games that he deserved to be there.” In other words, nobody wants actual behaviour to interfere with the legend.

Now that’s going to be tricky. Even judge Nair acknowledged major inconsistencies in the defence’s statement, a document Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson rightly refers to as having “more holes than a colander.” (The big questions:  Why did Steenkamp lock the bathroom door in middle of the night? Why didn’t Pistorius account or listen for her?) Pearson points out Pistorius’s first call was not to get help for a woman he claimed to “deeply love,” but to his spin doctor, Stuart Higgins, a well-known “crisis communications” expert.  His influence is evident on Pistorius’s revamped website, which presents the athlete and his family suffering foremost from Steenkamp’s death.

All will be on full display at the June ”Oscar Pistorius murder trial,” a media descriptor that suggests he, and not Reeva Steenkamp, is the victim. Likewise “The Blade” and “The Blonde” narrative embraced by the press reframes the tragedy as a grotesque Disney cartoon: it dehumanizes Steenkamp while burnishing Pistorius’s legend.  It’s language you’d expect from the New York Post with its “Blade Slays Blonde” headline and cover photo of Steenkamp  in a bikini. But, as Leigh Ann Renzulli  observes, even respected news sources like Washington Post referred to Steenkamp as “a leggy blonde” after her death. More troubling is its descriptor of the murdered woman: “While known for her bikini-clad, vamping photo spreads, she tweeted messages urging women to stand up against rape.” The sentence speaks volumes about entrenched attitudes: it’s noteworthy that a woman who dresses provocatively would object to sexual assault. The Reeva Steenkamp murder case may have put the lens on South Africa as misogyny ground zero, but its coverage indicates no one is exempt. Whether that includes the beloved celebrity who killed her remains to be seen.

Magistrate Desmond Nair grants Oscar Pistorius bail

By Emily Senger - Friday, February 22, 2013 at 9:24 AM - 0 Comments

Photographers take photos of Oscar Pistorius as he stands in the dock during his bail hearing at the magistrates court in Pretoria, South Africa, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. (Themba Hadebe/AP)

Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius will be released on bail after being charged with the premeditated murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

Magistrate Desmond Nair made the decision after hearing three days of testimony during a bail hearing.

Pistorius was charged with premeditated murder after he shot Steenkamp in his Pretoria home on Valentine’s Day. The defence argued that Pistorius had shot Steenkamp after mistaking her for an intruder. The prosecution argued that the shooting was intentional and that Pistorius shot Steenkamp as she hid behind a locked bathroom door. Continue…

Charges against Oscar Pistorius should be downgraded, defence argues at bail hearing

By Emily Senger - Thursday, February 21, 2013 at 9:12 AM - 0 Comments

Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius's father Henke Pistorius, right, with daughter Aimee, left, during his bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013. (Themba Hadebe/AP)

The biggest news from the third day of the bail hearing for Olympain Oscar Pistorius came from outside the court, as The Associated Press reported that the lead investigator in the case, Detective Hilton Botha, is facing attempted murder charges stemming from a shooting in 2011.

Inside the Pretoria courtroom, prosecutor Gerrie Nel confirmed that the reports about Botha were, indeed, true, but said that the prosecution didn’t know about the charges when they called him to the witness stand on the previous day.

After Nel addressed the charges, Botha entered the courtroom where he took the stand again to be questioned about phone records by Magistrate Desmond Nair. Police found several phones at the scene of the shooting, but Brotha said he had not yet received the phone records for both Pistorius and his slain girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp and there was, at present, no way to tell whether calls had been made between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. when the shooting took place. Continue…

Lead investigator in Oscar Pistorius case facing attempted murder charges

By Emily Senger - Thursday, February 21, 2013 at 8:04 AM - 0 Comments

Hilton Botha. (Themba Hadebe/AP)

The lead investigator in the Oscar Pistorius case, Hilton Botha, is now facing his own attempted murder charges, the media has learned on the day after he took the stand at Pistorius’ bail hearing.

The prosecution’s case against Olympic athlete Pistorius, who has been charged with the premeditated murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, took another blow Thursday when police were forced to admit that lead investigator Botha is facing reinstated charges from a shooting in 2011.

The Associated Press reports: “Botha was summoned by the magistrate on Thursday after police said charges have been reinstated against him in connection with a 2011 shooting incident in which he and two other officers allegedly fired at a minibus.” Continue…

Why are journalists allowed to report on the Oscar Pistorius bail hearing?

By Emily Senger - Wednesday, February 20, 2013 at 10:42 AM - 0 Comments

While journalists are forbidden from reporting on almost everything that happens during bail hearings in Canada, there are all kinds of headlines coming out of the Oscar Pistorius bail hearing in South Africa. Here’s why.

In the South Africa, the justice system is based on Roman-Dutch law and there are no juries. Since there are no juries, a judge, sitting alongside two assessors, will preside over the Pistorius case when it eventually goes to trial. The thought is that a judge won’t be swayed by pre-trial reporting in the same way a jury would, so journalists are free to report as they wish. Continue…

Photos: Oscar Pistorius bail hearing, Day 2

By Emily Senger - Wednesday, February 20, 2013 at 9:53 AM - 0 Comments

Continue…

Still no bail decision for Oscar Pistorius

By Emily Senger - Wednesday, February 20, 2013 at 8:59 AM - 0 Comments

Oscar Pistorius stands inside the court during his bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013. (Themba Hadebe/AP)

A bail hearing for former Olympian Oscar Pistorius will continue into a third day, decided Magistrate Desmond Nair after the conclusion of a second day of testimony in a Pretoria courtroom.

Pistorius, the athlete who became known as “blade runner” because of his artificial legs, is accused of premeditated murder. Prosecutors say he shot his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, while she was hiding in the bathroom of his east Pretoria home. On Tuesday, court heard the defence argument that Pistorius mistook Steenkamp for a burglar as he fired four shots through the locked bathroom door. Continue…

Olympian’s bail hearing makes headlines around the world

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, February 20, 2013 at 5:00 AM - 0 Comments

Front-page news: Oscar Pistorius

With the bail hearing for the Olympian still underway, here’s how the court case is playing in the world’s press:

Storified by Maclean’s Magazine· Wed, Feb 20 2013 04:26:30

Photos from the Oscar Pistorius bail hearing

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 19, 2013 at 8:37 AM - 0 Comments

Oscar Pistorius sobs as prosecutors argue case of premeditated murder

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 19, 2013 at 6:16 AM - 0 Comments

A woman holds a photo of Reeva Steenkamp, as she leaves the she leaves her funeral in Port Elizabeth, South Africa on Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013. (Schalk van Zuydam/AP)

Olympian Oscar Pistorius strapped on his prosthetic legs, walked across his bedroom and fired four shots into a locked bathroom door to kill his girlfriend, a court in Pretoria was told Tuesday morning.

“He prepared. He armed himself. The motive was, he wanted to kill,” the prosecutors said.

The 26-year-old athlete sobbed through his bail hearing as prosecutors described the night Reeva Steenkamp was killed.

Barry Roux, lawyer for Pistorius, argued that few facts are known of the early hours of Feb. 14, 2013. He told the court that without witnesses there is no way to prove his client knew who was behind the bathroom door. “There is no concession this is murder,” he told the court.

Based on the evidence so far, the judge said there is no reason to exclude the possibility of premeditated murder.

In a statement read into the court, Pistorius denied murder. Here is more of that statement, as excerpted by The Mirror:

I fail to understand how I could be charged with murder, let alone premed murder because I had no intention to kill.

I had no intention to kill my girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

I love my country.

I have been informed I have been accused of murder – I deny the false accusation in the strongest terms. There is no substance to the allegations.

Nothing can be further from the truth that I planned the murder of my girlfriend.

On the night, Reeva was doing yoga exercise in the bedroom and I was watching TV. My legs were off.

I am acutely aware of people gaining entries to homes to commit crime. I have received death threats before. I sleep with a 9mm under my bed.

I woke to close the sliding door and heard a noise in the bathroom. I felt a sense of terror and believed someone had entered my house.

I did not have my prosthetic legs on and felt extremely vulnerable. I had to protect Reeva and myself.

I didn’t switch the light on. I moved towards the bathroom and screamed at the intruder.

I was on my stumps when I fired shots through the bathroom door and shouted Reeva to call the police.

I went back to the bedroom and it dawned on me that it might be Reeva in the bathroom. I was mortified. I kicked the door open and called for security and paramedics.

I carried her downstairs as I was told not to wait for paramedics. She died in my arms.

In hindsight I realize that Reeva went to the bathroom when I got up to close the balcony door.

After the shooting I did not try to flee. I waited for police. I will not evade trial.

Continue…

Nike, Oakley distance themselves from Olympian Oscar Pistorius

By The Associated Press - Monday, February 18, 2013 at 10:38 PM - 0 Comments

Two major sponsors, Oakley and Nike, distanced themselves from Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius on Monday after the South African sports star was charged with murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend.

Oakley, the eyewear maker, suspended its contract with Pistorius. And Nike, which sells shoes and other athletic gear, said it has no plans to use him in future ad campaigns.

Pistorius lost both of his legs in childhood. Racing on carbon-fiber blades, he was the first amputee athlete to run at the world championships in 2011, and he made history competing in the London Olympics last year. His success at overcoming hardship made him popular with South Africans, and a desirable pitchman for advertisers.

On Thursday, he was arrested and charged with shooting his girlfriend to death in his home in South Africa. His family has denied that he murdered his girlfriend, the model Reeva Steenkamp.

Continue…

Nike, Oakley distance themselves from Olympian Oscar Pistorius after murder charge

By The Associated Press - Monday, February 18, 2013 at 10:36 PM - 0 Comments

Two major sponsors, Oakley and Nike, distanced themselves from Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius on Monday after the South African sports star was charged with murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend.

Oakley, the eyewear maker, suspended its contract with Pistorius. And Nike, which sells shoes and other athletic gear, said it has no plans to use him in future ad campaigns.

Pistorius lost both of his legs in childhood. Racing on carbon-fiber blades, he was the first amputee athlete to run at the world championships in 2011, and he made history competing in the London Olympics last year. His success at overcoming hardship made him popular with South Africans, and a desirable pitchman for advertisers.

On Thursday, he was arrested and charged with shooting his girlfriend to death in his home in South Africa. His family has denied that he murdered his girlfriend, the model Reeva Steenkamp.

Pistorius’ agent has cancelled the athlete’s future scheduled races.

Nike Inc. confirmed to The Associated Press on Monday that it had no plans to use Pistorius in future campaigns. Nike spokesman KeJuan Wilkins declined to say whether Nike had previously had any plans for Pistorius, or whether it will remove current advertising that includes him.

A 2007 Nike Internet ad showing Pistorius starting to sprint in his blades with the caption: “I am the bullet in the chamber” had already been pulled.

Wilkins said the wording in the 2007 campaign “was in reference to Oscar’s speed and performance on the track. Nike felt it was appropriate to take the ad down from Oscar’s website recognizing the sensitivities of the situation.”

Later on Monday, Oakley, in an emailed statement, said that “in light of the recent allegations, Oakley is suspending its contract with Oscar Pistorius, effective immediately.” The California company, a unit of Italian glasses and sunglasses maker Luxottica Group, has been associated with Pistorius since 2009, according to the athlete’s website.

Pistorius’ website, which has been posting statements from his manager and his family, still shows other Nike ads, as well as logos from Nike, Oakley and other companies.

Beaverton, Ore.-based Nike, which spent $800 million on endorsements in its last fiscal year, has found itself in tricky situations with athletes before. It dropped Lance Armstrong in October 2012 after charges of widespread doping on his cycling teams. Armstrong has since admitted to doping and has been stripped of his seven Tour de France victories, and was also dropped by other sponsors.

But Nike stood by golfer Tiger Woods after he admitted to infidelities and went to rehab for sex addiction, and restarted a relationship with football player Michael Vick once he had served time for illegal dog-fighting.

10 developments in the Oscar Pistorius case via the morning papers

By macleans.ca - Monday, February 18, 2013 at 6:41 AM - 0 Comments

South African Paralympian and Olympian Oscar Pistorius has been charged with murder after his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was found shot dead early Valentine’s Day morning.

10 developments in the case:

1. A blood-covered cricket bat will be key to the investigation, City Press is reporting. Other reports, which police have not denied, suggest the model’s skull was fractured before her death. Police sources have cautioned that, in fact, blood was found on many items in the home.

2. Since his court appearance, Pistorius has been held in a single cell in a Brooklyn police station. “It was a priority to ensure that no harm comes to Oscar,” a police officer told the Guardian newspaper, “and to make double sure that, because of his disability, he is not hurt in any way that could hamper his mobility.”

Continue…

Reeva Steenkamp was more than just Oscar Pistorius’ girlfriend, say readers

By Emily Senger - Friday, February 15, 2013 at 8:36 AM - 0 Comments

Continue…

What we know so far about Reeva Steenkamp and the case against Oscar Pistorius

By Stephanie Findlay - Thursday, February 14, 2013 at 9:34 PM - 0 Comments

Athlete Oscar Pistorius weeps in court in Pretoria, South Africa, Friday, Feb 15, 2013. (Antione de Ras, Independent Newspapers Ltd South Africa, AP Photo)

This is what we know. Oscar Pistorius, the South African Paralympian and Olympian, is accused of murdering Reeva Steenkamp, his girlfriend. He allegedly shot her four times with a 9-mm pistol around 4 a.m. Valentine’s Day morning.

South African media are reporting she was struck through a bathroom door. Neighbours told police they’d heard “screaming and shouting” around the time of the shooting.  Beeld, a South African newspaper, have reported that Steenkamp was alive when security guards first arrived at the scene.

On Friday morning in a Pretoria courtroom, the star athlete wept as  murder charges were read. Prosecutors told the court they will make the case that the killing was premeditated.

Continue…

Gallery: Images of slain model Reeva Steenkamp, girlfriend to Oscar Pistorius

By macleans.ca - Thursday, February 14, 2013 at 10:01 AM - 0 Comments

of Photos

Twitter reacts to shooting of Reeva Steenkamp, girlfriend of Olympian Oscar Pistorius

By macleans.ca - Thursday, February 14, 2013 at 9:26 AM - 0 Comments

Reeva Steenkamp remembered

Storified by Maclean’s Magazine· Thu, Feb 14 2013 07:52:07

Olympian Oscar Pistorius charged with murder after girlfriend shot dead

By macleans.ca - Thursday, February 14, 2013 at 6:01 AM - 0 Comments

(Lucky Nxumalo-Citypress/AP)

Maclean’s correspondent Stephanie Findlay is on the scene. Watch later for a full report.

South African Paralympian and Olympian Oscar Pistorius has been charged with murder after his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was found shot dead early Valentine’s Day morning.

Steenkamp is said to have been shot four times.

“I can confirm that a woman has been fatally wounded in a shooting at Oscar Pistorius’s house,” The Guardian newspaper quotes a police officer as saying. “We found a 9mm pistol at the scene.” Continue…

London (Olympics) Calling

By Jonathon Gatehouse - Friday, December 21, 2012 at 10:00 AM - 0 Comments

Julian Finney/ Getty Images

Olympic gold?

Speechless When trampolinist Rosie MacLennan of King City, Ont., won Canada’s first (and only) Olympic gold, the 23-year-old was shell-shocked: “I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do?” The answer is: everything. She’s been celebrated at centre court by the Raptors, introduced an author at the Giller Prize ceremony, and was an honoured guest at the Gold Medal Plates fundraiser for Olympic athletes in Ottawa (her medal in an elegant clutch purse). She’s now an ambassador for the Level the Field campaign to show “how play can create brighter futures for children everywhere,” she says.

Hang Time

Boris Johnson doesn’t appear fit for office—or anything else, really. Permanently dishevelled, gaffe-prone and coiffed almost as preposterously as Donald Trump, the former journalist is, in a word, shambolic. But Londoners have a soft spot for their clownish mayor, and by the end of the Games so did the rest of the world. Despite dire predictions about everything from transit chaos to labour strife, the party went off without a hitch—except the moment when “BoJo” somehow got stuck midair on a zipline. And now there’s serious talk he might eventually replace David Cameron. Stranger things have happened.

Pure Inspiration

Oscar Pistorius is among the fastest 400-m runners in the world. Quick enough to make South Africa’s Olympic squad, then come second in his heat in London, before bowing out in the semifinals. These are essential truths that sometimes get lost in the hype and controversy over the fact that he does it all on carbon-fibre blades. The double-amputee had to fight long and hard for his chance to race against able-bodied athletes. And while he didn’t win, he scored a victory for himself, and all of sport, just by being there. Continue…

Tomorrow’s people and the body of the future

By Anne Kingston - Thursday, October 18, 2012 at 6:20 AM - 0 Comments

Getty Images; Photo Illustration by Levi Nicholson

A century ago, the design of 21st-century man was unimaginable to anyone but sci-fi writers, and even they didn’t go far enough. No one foresaw a species able to prevent pregnancy with a pill. Or able to snake a wire up an artery to restore bloodflow. No one anticipated the sub-species of “Real Housewives”—women bronzed in tanning beds, filled with silicone and injected with a poisonous toxin to smooth wrinkles.

Such interventions are but a prelude to the human-design innovation to come, predicts Juan Enríquez, founding director of Harvard Business School’s Life Sciences Project. We’ve been given glimpses of that future: the thriving field of regenerative medicine is using stem cells to regrow old organs—and build brand new ones. Cancer patients have received new windpipes built from their own cells; spinal columns are being augmented with polymers. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Edward Boyden’s lab has successfully downloaded a mouse’s memory to a computer, raising all sorts of possibilities for externalizing human memory. Scientists are isolating “high-performance” genes such as ACE, linked to the ability to adapt to high altitudes, and 577R, which is found in most Olympic power athletes. Meanwhile, neuroprosthetics are redefining “bionic man” with artificial limbs powered via little more than a bit of electric current and the person’s thoughts.

Man’s instinct to re-engineer is hard-wired, Enríquez says in an interview with Maclean’s. “We’ve transformed poisonous berries into beautiful heirloom tomatoes,” he says. “We’ve taken wolves and made them into various species of dogs; we’ve taken corn and made it a completely unnatural plant—grains the same size and colour.” And now, in making the human body itself the platform for innovation, we’re propelling the evolution of the species itself. In Homo Evolutis: A Short Tour of Our New Species, an ebook he co-authored with Steve Gullans, Enríquez writes that Homo sapiens have already evolved into “Homo evolutis,” defined as “a hominid that takes direct and deliberate control over the evolution of his species, her species and other species.”

The result, Enríquez says, will be an explosion of various species of varying genetic composition. And soon. Our children or grandchildren, he says, could take different enough biological forms from us to be considered another species entirely.

In conversation, Enríquez dials back his timeline slightly. “Though it takes centuries for entire species populations to separate, you are going to start to see clusters, looking like very different types of things.” The history of genetically modified food offers a model, he says: “Over 20 years, plant life in one place is completely different from another. Grain harvested in Canada is very different than grain harvested in parts of Europe.” New natural selection will hinge on money and government policy: “Some countries will veto procedures like stem cell and gene therapies; others will push for them,” he says. “And you’ll get every type of variety in between.”

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