Salon.com > Christopher Torchia

Pistorius legal team appeals bail conditions

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 12:42:00 +0000

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Lawyers for Oscar Pistorius have filed an appeal in a South African court against bail restrictions imposed on the Olympian, who is charged with murdering his girlfriend, according to papers released by the Pistorius family on Monday.

"The conditions appealed against are unwarranted and not substantiated by the facts," said the appeal, which was filed Friday in Pretoria, the South African capital.

The appeal reflected the robust defense strategy of lawyers for Pistorius, who has been staying at his uncle Arnold's home in a Pretoria suburb since he was released on bail on Feb. 22.

It is a delicate balance because the Pistorius family has also sought to keep a low profile, expressing sorrow for the death of Reeva Steenkamp on Feb. 14. Pistorius says he mistakenly shot Steenkamp, thinking she was an intruder in his home. Prosecutors believe he killed her intentionally after an argument.

The Associated Press received a copy of the court papers by email from representatives of the Pistorius family. The appeal was prepared by Ramsay Webber, a legal firm based in Johannesburg.

Detective in Pistorius case faces prior attempted murder charges

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 13:44:00 +0000

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — Prosecutors reinstated attempted murder charges against a policeman leading the murder investigation into world-famous athlete Oscar Pistorius, in the latest twist in a case that has captivated South Africa and threatens to bring down a national idol.

The announcement that detective Hilton Botha faces reinstated charges in connection with a 2011 shooting incident came a day after he testified for the prosecution in Pistorius' bail hearing, and by all accounts bungled his appearance. He acknowledged Wednesday that nothing in Pistorius' account of the fatal Valentine's Day shooting of his girlfriend contradicted what police had discovered.

The spokeswoman for the nation's prosecutors urged that Botha be removed from the Pistorius case.

Pistorius, an Olympian whose lower legs were amputated when he was less than a year old, claims he mistook girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp for an intruder when he shot her in a locked bathroom in his home.

Wimbledon repeat: Federer-Murray face off in final

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 04:36:35 +0000

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Roger Federer has "been around the block," as he puts it. The Swiss star has played for major titles, for the record books, for a place in tennis history.

On Sunday, he plays for Olympic gold in singles. That's new even for him.

The final will be a rematch of the game the top-ranked player won on the same court in the Wimbledon final a month ago. His opponent, British player Andy Murray, is hoping the novelty of the situation will give him a slim advantage. Federer is also trying to complete a career Golden Slam — all four major titles and an Olympic win.

"It's so rare for him to be in a position where he's trying to do something new because he's achieved so much in tennis. I hope that will even things out a little bit," said Murray, whose head-to-head record against Federer is 8-8. "It's going to be a tough match."

Federer acknowledged being emotionally drained after his semifinal win Friday over Juan Martin del Potro, the longest best-of-three set match in Open history at four hours and 26 minutes.

But few believe that the match will detract from his performance on Sunday on a court where he has celebrated so many triumphs.

Myths explain Greece

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 15:15:00 +0000

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — In Greek mythology, King Sisyphus pushed a boulder up a hill, over and over, forever, in a futile exercise that a few commentators have compared to international efforts to revive Greece’s dire finances. Homer’s Odyssey, whose protagonist endures years of peril on his way home after the Trojan War, is seen as another metaphor for the ordeal of a nation in its fifth year of recession.

Scylla and Charybdis, the sea monsters flanking a strait that forced ships to brave one side or the other, are associated today with the expression, “between a rock and a hard place,” the predicament of modern Greeks left with no good options.

Turning to allegories infused with one-eyed giants and other fantastical creatures to explain the Greek crisis, which threatens to morph into a financial crisis worldwide, seems like an indulgence at a time when the state, and ordinary citizens, can’t pay their bills.

Yet ancient myths lend context to the swirl of acrimony and austerity, bailouts and brinkmanship, coalitions and currencies, debt and deadlines, that define the social and economic ills of Greece, which is in danger of falling out of the euro currency. It turns out the legends have plenty to say about hubris and ruin, order and chaos, boom and bust.

Gaza flotilla, more cat-and-mouse than crisis

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 13:18:00 +0000

On a hotel rooftop in Exarchia, a gritty neighborhood known to breed artists and anarchists, a hodgepodge of activists plotted how to breach Israel's sea blockade of the Gaza Strip. Soaked in Mediterranean sunshine, these warhorses of the Palestinian cause murmured in English, Greek, Arabic and other tongues.

The loose-knit network behind the stranded aid flotilla that has garnered international attention has little to tie it together except a cause, and now it is dispersing after at least two weeks in Greece. Many American activists flew home on Wednesday, and a peaceful sit-in by Spanish protesters at their embassy in Athens was dwindling in size.

Members of this genial Tower of Babel, including veterans of leftist politics, gave formal news conferences in casual attire in the past week to drum up publicity, one of the few tools at their disposal in the face of government pressure blocking their flotilla.

The movement included Dror Feiler, an Israel-born musician who moved to Sweden decades ago; Vangelis Pissias, a professor at the Technical University of Athens; and Jane Hirschmann, a psychotherapist from New York City and member of a group called "Jews Say No!"

Egypt revolt becomes global case study

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 20:33:00 +0000

It seems naive to hope the fallout from cataclysmic events in the Middle East and North Africa can spill beyond the region and stir distant, repressed populations with no cultural or historical affinity. Yet successful uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia have captivated dissidents and activists around the world who have campaigned in vain for radical change, in some cases for decades.

This week, South Korean activists even hoisted helium balloons into the air and watched them drift into North Korea with a message attached: discard your leaders, just as the Egyptians did.

"The Egyptian people rose up in a revolution to topple a 30-year dictatorship," said one of the leaflets coasting over the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas. "The North Koreans too must revolt against a 60-year-old dictatorship."

The strain of poverty and inefficient government in North Korea, which has been targeted by international sanctions, matches or exceeds that of Arab autocracies currently buffeted by street protests. Its human rights record, along with those of Myanmar and Zimbabwe, is routinely condemned in international forums.

But there are no clear signs that these countries will face the same kind of upheaval sweeping Bahrain, Yemen, Libya and elsewhere.

Mubarak: A survivor comes undone

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 17:36:00 +0000

He survived assassination attempts and wave after wave of Mideast crises, a solid ally of the West whose stable image reassured many Egyptians. Hosni Mubarak ended his presidency Friday as a symbol of what was wrong with Egypt: the repression, the corruption, the lost hopes of a swelling, impoverished class.

Mubarak, in power for nearly three decades, was such a fixture that his exit from power was hard to conceive for most Egyptians just a short time ago. Year after year, as the president aged and ailed, people watched his scripted appearances on television -- the suit and tie, the wagging finger, the "father of the nation" aura.

After protests and upheaval swept Egypt, Mubarak sought to portray himself as the only obstacle to chaos, as he had done successfully so many times in the past. Yet attacks by his supporters, who roamed downtown Cairo with impunity, suggested that violence lay at the core of his system.

As he clung to power, the status quo he personified became increasingly loathed. And as it turns out, beneath the stern facade of authority, the 82-year-old was a figure in steep decline, unable to check boiling currents of popular fury, or harness the history unfolding in his nation of 80 million -- the largest in the Arab world.

A Taliban firefight, up close

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:01:00 +0000

"Medic!" Bullets cracked through the dry grass. Medic!"

"Who's hit?" someone yelled. The American soldiers were pinned down in a ditch Sunday, bodies prone in the mud.

"I don't know!" another voice shouted in the din of gunfire.

A U.S. soldier was down, shot in the chest by an insurgent near the besieged Taliban stronghold of Marjah. A Canadian soldier in the same patrol took a bullet in the front of his helmet, right where the center of his forehead was, like a bull's-eye. He was stunned, but unhurt.

Where were the insurgents shooting from? Which of the mud-walled compounds up ahead?

The firefight in the Badula Qulp region of Helmand province lasted about 45 minutes and tapered off after a Cobra helicopter shot a Hellfire missile into the building where the Taliban were believed hiding. Soldiers said they found the body of one suspected insurgent and heard another may have been buried quickly

It was a small skirmish in the grand scheme of the Afghan war. The focus of the fighting was to the southwest in Marjah, where U.S. Marines launched an offensive a day earlier.

But the intense gunfight showed the difficulty of fighting an enemy who knows the terrain, watches, waits and strikes when it chooses -- frequently appearing to capitalize on Western rules designed to prevent civilian casualties.