PRETORIA – South African athlete Oscar Pistorius has been found guilty of culpable homicide after the judge found he killed his girlfriend by mistake. Judge Thokozile Masipa said the athlete acted “negligently” when he fired shots through a toilet door, but in the “belief that there was an intruder”. She said the state had failed…
PRETORIA – The judge in the Oscar Pistorius trial has ruled out all murder charges, but says he may still be guilty of culpable homicide (manslaughter). Judge Thokozile Masipa said the prosecution had failed to prove the Olympic athlete killed his girlfriend deliberately in the toilet after a row, prompting tears from Mr Pistorius. He…
NEW YORK – Vaccinated monkeys have developed “long-term” immunity to the Ebola virus, raising a prospect of successful human trials, say scientists. The experiments by the US National Institutes of Health showed immunity could last at least 10 months. Human trials of the vaccine started this week in the US and will extend to the…
GENEVA – More than 1,900 people have now died in West Africa’s Ebola outbreak, the World Health Organization (WHO) says. There have been 3,500 confirmed or probable cases in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. “The outbreaks are racing ahead of the control efforts in these countries,” WHO chief Margaret Chan said. The WHO is meeting…
PORT HARCOURT – Nigeria has confirmed its first Ebola death outside Lagos – a doctor in the oil hub of Port Harcourt. His wife has been put under quarantine, while a further 70 people in the city are under surveillance. Latest figures show more than 1,550 people have died of Ebola, with at least 3,000…
HARARE – More than 3,000 books from the personal collection of celebrated author Doris Lessing have been given to the city library in Harare, Zimbabwe, it’s been reported. The winner of the Nobel Prize for literature died in November 2013, and beneficiaries of her will had to decide what to do with Lessing’s enormous collection…
HARARE – Foreign investment in Zimbabwe more than halved in the first six months of the year, the country’s central bank chief John Mangudya has said. “The country received a paltry $67m [£40m] compared to $165m during the same period in 2013,” he said. The government policy to hand economic control to black Zimbabweans had…
ABUJA – Some 480 Nigerian soldiers have fled into Cameroon following fierce fighting with Boko Haram militants, Cameroon’s army has said. Army spokesman Lt Col Didier Badjek said the soldiers had been disarmed and were now being accommodated in schools. Clashes are said to be continuing in the border town of Gamboru Ngala. Boko Haram…
KAMPALA – The Ugandan army has said it plans to take over the country’s Miss Uganda beauty contest, it appears. Kampala’s presidential adviser on the military Gen Caleb Akandwanaho – who is widely known as Salim Saleh – says the move is intended to “attract young people into the agricultural sector”, adding that it may…
MONROVIA – Police in Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, have fired live rounds and tear gas during protests after a quarantine was imposed to contain the spread of the deadly Ebola virus. Residents of the capital’s West Point slum area say the barbed wire blockade stops them buying food and working. Four people are said to have…
