VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis yesterday marked the first anniversary of his election in prayer and quiet contemplation of the meaning of Lent, far from the adoring crowds and controversies of Rome. In keeping with Francis’s tendency to eschew much of the pomp and ceremony associated with his role, the anniversary was not marked in any official way, with the exception of a solitary tweet from the official @Pontifex account. “Please pray for me,” the 77-year-old wrote to his 12 million followers in nine languages, echoing an appeal he made in his first address to followers from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica exactly one year ago. Francis was spending the day on a pre-Easter spiritual retreat in the Castelli Romani, a picturesque area on the southeastern outskirts of Rome. He left the Vatican on Sunday and will return on Saturday. The micro-blogging site was awash yesterday with commentary on the anniversary, well-wishers hugely outnumbering detractors. “What a year it has been,” tweeted Irish priest Rory Coyle while the Washington Post hailed: “A triumphant 1st year.”
Court sees graphic images of Pistorius’ home after shooting
PRETORIA: A South African court saw graphic images yesterday of the bloodstained bathroom in which Oscar Pistorius shot his girlfriend, as prosecutors unveiled more details of the scene of the Valentine’s Day killing. Colonel Schoombie van Rensburg, the first policeman to arrive at the athlete’s home in an upmarket Pretoria estate, described the grisly sight that greeted him in the early hours of February 14 last year. During his testimony, photographs of Steenkamp’s face and body were also shown accidentally to the court, upsetting Pistorius, who vomited into a bucket for the second time since the start of the trial, now in its second week. Van Rensburg said that on his arrival at the home, he saw Steenkamp’s body lying at the bottom of the staircase covered in towels and black bags. She had been declared dead by medics by the time he arrived. Moments later, he found a “very emotional” Pistorius in the kitchen pacing up and down. “I asked him what happened but he didn’t answer me,” Van Rensburg told the court. “He was in tears.”
Drunk driver hits Texas crowd, kills 2
WASHINGTON: A suspected drunk driver plowed into a crowd of festival-goers in the Texas state capital Austin early yesterday, killing two people and injuring 23, police said. The unidentified motorist, driving a small Toyota automobile “at a high rate of speed,” was being pursued by police when he veered into a closed-off street and hit the revellers outside the Mohawk nightclub. Austin police chief Art Acevedo said the driver — apprehended after he was zapped with a Taser while trying to flee on foot — would face two counts of capital murder and 23 counts of aggravated assault.
28 killed in Venezuela protests
GENEVA: A total of 28 people have been killed and 365 injured in anti-government protests rocking Venezuela, the country’s top prosecutor said yesterday, lamenting an atmosphere of “violence and chaos”. “In all there have been 28 deaths” since the protests first erupted in early February, Luisa Ortega Diaz said on the sidelines of the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva. “What began in Venezuela as a peaceful demonstration has been transformed into violence and chaos,” she said, speaking a day after some 3,000 students marched in Caracas. Agencies
