Pistorius returns to court
PARALYMPIC star Oscar Pistorius has arrived for his second court appearance in South Africa charged with the murder of his model girlfriend.
The gold-medal winner, known as the Blade Runner for his prosthetic legs, arrived by car at Pretoria Magistrates’ Court amid a media frenzy, Sky News TV footage showed.
The 26-year-old is expected to apply for bail, in a hearing which could reveal more details about the death of Reeva Steenkamp.
Plans to co-operate on cyber threat
BRITAIN and India are expected to agree today to strengthen co-operation in responding to the threat of cyber attacks by criminal gangs, terrorists and hostile states, as David Cameron meets Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi.
Millions of Britons have sensitive personal and financial details stored in “server farms” in India, as a growing number of global companies site data operations on the sub-continent.
And Britain and India share an interest in developing stronger cyber-security defences in response to increasingly audacious attacks on computer networks, believed to stem not only from criminal sources but also state agents in China and elsewhere.
Germany plans tighter controls on meat
TIGHTER controls on meat products and stronger penalties for companies that violate food-labelling rules are planned for Germany.
The new rules are being brought in as more items marketed as “all beef” were pulled from supermarket shelves after testing positive for horse meat.
And the scandal is spreading further, with the BBC reporting that beef pasta meals have been removed from shelves in Italy and Spain after tests revealed traces of horse DNA.
Cameron in call to RBS management
DAVID Cameron urged the management of the largely state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland today to “accelerate” the process of strengthening the company in preparation for a return to the private sector.
The Prime Minister played down reports that the Government is preparing to dispose of its stake in RBS with a pre-election share give-away to voters.
He insisted he was “keen to examine all possibilities” for returning the bank to the private sector, but said he had not reached a view on how this should be done.
Novelist in attack on Duchess
AWARD-WINNING novelist Hilary Mantel has attacked the Duchess of Cambridge as a “shop-window mannequin” with no personality, whose only purpose is to breed.
During a lecture at the British Museum, the double Booker Prize winner criticised Kate as appearing to have been “gloss-varnished” with a perfect plastic smile in contrast to Princess Diana, who she described as awkward and emotionally incontinent.
She went on to suggest that the “painfully thin” Kate was selected for her role of princess because she posed no risk of showing any character.
