Oscar Pistorius case: Reeva Steenkamp TV show defended

Reeva Steenkamp appeared in a reality TV show recorded in Jamaica

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Oscar Pistorius arrest

• South Africa shock
• Pistorius's rise
• Reeva Steenkamp
• Reaction to shooting

A South African TV channel has defended its decision to air a reality show featuring Reeva Steenkamp, the girlfriend of athlete Oscar Pistorius, who is accused of her murder.

The producer of the SABC show, Samantha Moon, told the BBC the decision was taken after consulting the family.
Tropika Island of Treasure was broadcast on Saturday evening.
Meanwhile, Mr Pistorius's uncle said on Saturday that the athlete was "numb with shock, as well as grief".
'Vibrant and funny' Tropika Island of Treasure was made on location in Jamaica, with several personalities competing for a one million rand ($113,500) prize.

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As a family we are trying to be strong and supportive to Oscar as any close family would be in these dreadful circumstances”

Arnold Pistorius, Uncle

At the start of the programme, Ms Steenkamp, 29, was seen talking about her appearance on it, shortly before she left Jamaica to return home: "The way that you go out and make your exit is so important. You have either made an impact in a positive way or a negative way."

Ms Moon said the decision to air the programme had nothing to do with ratings.
She told the BBC's Newshour: "I took it after consultation with her family and the feeling was that this is an amazing woman who you don't have very much in the public domain except for the work she was most well known for... which is her modelling work.
"We felt that it was important for people to know that there was more to the narrative of Reeva than an exceptionally beautiful girl in a bikini, that she was strong and vibrant and funny and lovely and that this is a tragedy on an unspeakable level."
Reeva's cousin, Sharon Steenkamp, told the Associated Press news agency the family did not oppose the airing, saying: "Her last words to us personally was that she wants us to watch it."

  Oscar Pistorius appeared in court on Friday charged with murder

However, one South African TV critic, Thinus Ferreira, said the motives were questionable and "very much about the commercial considerations".
He said that if the show had been pulled it would have upset sponsors, advertising and scheduling.
The audience was expected to be far higher than the 2.5 million to 3 million who usually watch the show, now in its fifth season.
Meanwhile, Oscar Pistorius's uncle, Arnold, said the Olympic and Paralympic star was "numb with shock, as well as grief" after Ms Steenkamp's death.
He repeated the family's opposition to the prosecution's pursuit of a "premeditated murder" charge.
Arnold Pistorius said Ms Steenkamp was someone the family had "got to know well and care for deeply over the last few months".
He added: "They had plans together and Oscar was happier in his private life than he had been for a long time.

Standing with Oscar's sister Aimee, Arnold Pistorius, Oscar's uncle, says the athlete is "numb with shock"

"We are all grieving for Reeva, her family and her friends," he said.
"We, as a family, are also battling to come to terms with Oscar being charged with murder. Words cannot adequately describe our feelings.
"The lives of our entire family have been turned upside down forever by this unimaginable human tragedy and Reeva's family have suffered a terrible loss.
"As a family we are trying to be strong and supportive to Oscar as any close family would be in these dreadful circumstances."
Mr Pistorius is in police custody ahead of a bail hearing on Tuesday.
Ms Steenkamp, a model and law graduate, was shot dead inside the Pretoria home of Mr Pistorius in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The pair had been together since November.
A memorial service for Reeva Steenkamp will be held in Port Elizabeth on Tuesday, SABC has reported.

HIV increase in gay men caused by fall in condom use

A modest increase in unprotected sex is enough to erode the benefits of other interventions, researchers said

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A fall in the proportion of gay and bisexual men using condoms is behind the rise in HIV infections in those groups in the UK, say researchers.

Wider use of anti-retroviral drugs has helped to stop a sharper rise, a study by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) and a number of universities found.
They found a 26% rise, from 1990-2010, in the proportion of men who have sex with men who did not use condoms.
The report said the figures showed it was vital to promote safe sex.
Rates of HIV have been rising in recent years with latest figures showing cases among men who have sex with men (MSM) in the UK reaching an all-time high.
Wider use of anti-retroviral drugs has helped to stop a sharper rise, a study by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) and a number of universities found.
They found a 26% rise, from 1990-2010, in the proportion of men who have sex with men who did not use condoms.
The report said the figures showed it was vital to promote safe sex.
Rates of HIV have been rising in recent years with latest figures showing cases among men who have sex with men (MSM) in the UK reaching an all-time high.
A recent report from the HPA found that nearly half of the 6,280 people diagnosed in the UK in 2011 were MSM.
Overall, one in 20 MSM are infected with HIV.

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Case study

Darren, Greater Manchester, writes:
"I suspect the rise is more among young MSMs.
"They see HIV positive men like myself and think it is just a matter of popping a few pills if they catch it, so they are not that phased about becoming HIV positive or not using condoms.
"There also seem to be more bisexual men or curious men around now who are used to not bothering with condoms with heterosexual encounters so prefer not to use them elsewhere too.
"When I do have sex I tend to use condoms as there are worse things you can get like Hepatitis C or an alternative strain of HIV which can reduce your highly active antiretroviral therapy drug pool."

For this study, researchers analysed data from 1990 to 2010. They concluded that, without the introduction of anti-retroviral drugs to treat those with HIV, infections would be 68% higher in MSM.

Therapy with anti-retrovirals lowers the risk of people with HIV infecting others.
The report suggested the incidence of HIV could be 32% lower if all anti-retroviral treatment were prescribed from the moment of diagnosis rather than when health declined.
Informed choices Further analysis showed that, if all MSM had stopped using condoms from 2000, rates of HIV in this group would now be 400% higher, the journal PLoS One reported.
The data also showed that the incidence of HIV could have dropped by a quarter if more HIV testing had been done.

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Everyone should use a condom when having sex with new or casual partners, until all partners have had a sexual health screen.”

Dr Valerie Delpech Health Protection Agency

But the researchers said the results showed that even a modest increase in unprotected sex was enough to erode the benefits of other interventions.

Study leader Professor Andrew Phillips, from University College London, said: "By better understanding the driving forces behind the trends we've seen in the past, it will allow us to make informed choices to reduce new HIV infections in the future."
Co-author Dr Valerie Delpech, who is head of HIV surveillance at the HPA, said: "Everyone should use a condom when having sex with new or casual partners, until all partners have had a sexual health screen.
"We also encourage men who have sex with men to get an HIV and STI screen at least annually, and every three months if having condomless sex with new or casual partners - and clinicians to take every opportunity to recommend HIV testing to this group."
Sir Nick Partridge, chief executive of the Terrence Higgins Trust, said condom use by gay men had played a key part in containing the spread of HIV in the UK.
"Without it, there would have been 80,000 more gay men with HIV between 2000 and 2010."
He added that the study showed the impact of the combined HIV strategy of promoting condoms, increasing regular HIV testing and encouraging the earlier use of anti-HIV drug therapy.
He added: "At a time when funding for local HIV prevention programmes is under threat, this only reinforces the important role which local authorities can and must play in funding local HIV prevention."

No Afghan help for residential air strikes - Karzai

Mr Karzai said he would issue a decree on Sunday, less than a week after 10 civilians were killed in a night raid in the eastern province of Kunar.
Nato-led forces in Afghanistan are not expected to make a formal response until the full decree has been issued.
Civilian casualties are a source of tension between Afghan and Nato forces.
"I will issue a decree [on Sunday] that no Afghan security forces, in any circumstances can ask for the foreigners' planes for carrying out operations on our homes and villages,'' Mr Karzai said in a speech at the Afghan National Military Academy in Kabul.
"Our forces ask for air support from foreigners and children get killed in an air strike," he added.
Limited strength

Nato troops are scheduled to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and have gradually been handing over responsibility for security to their Afghan counterparts.

Mr Karzai said Afghans were "happy" about the withdrawal.
"We are happy for all their help and assistance so far, but we do not need foreign forces to defend our country. We want our Afghan forces to defend their homeland," he said.
The BBC's Karen Allen, in Kabul, says Afghan forces now lead 90% of all security operations.
Yet the Afghan air force has limited strength, so Nato air support is considered crucial, especially for operations in harsh terrain and mountainous areas, our correspondent says.
Most of the 10 civilians killed in the 13 February air strike on Kunar were women and children.
Four Taliban fighters also died in the attack, in the Shegal district of Kunar, which borders Pakistan. The Afghan army said the dead men had links to al-Qaeda.
Mr Karzai said he had been told the air strike was requested by Afghan forces.
"If this is true, it is very regrettable and it is very shameful. How could they ask foreigners to send planes and bomb our own houses?" he said.
"I agree we are passing through a challenging phase, but we are the owners of this country... and fortunately, we will show to the world that we can protect our country," said President Karzai.
The deaths in Kunar came just after US President Barack Obama confirmed plans for the withdrawal of about half the 66,000 US troops in Afghanistan by early 2014.

Last year a US drone attack in the same area killed Mullah Dadullah, a high-ranking Pakistani Taliban commander.

Civilian casualties rose sharply in every year from 2008 to 2011, though they fell in the first half of 2012, according to figures from the UN mission in Afghanistan.
The figures cover deaths caused both by Nato forces, allied with government troops, and by insurgents.
A UN report earlier this month accused the US of killing hundreds of children in air strikes over the past four years.
The number of child casualties had doubled in 2010-2011 due to a "lack of precautionary measures and use of indiscriminate force", the study found.
The Nato-led Isaf force called the claims "categorically unfounded" and "false".

Pakistan: Dozens dead in bomb attack on Quetta market

The blast occurred in a crowded market place in an ethnic Hazara area of the city.
It is the second major attack on Quetta's 600,000-strong Hazara community in five weeks.
A twin suicide bomb attack at a crowded snooker club on 10 January killed at least 92 people and wounded 121.

The banned Sunni militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for the January attacks; and has reportedly claimed responsibility for this latest bombing.

The bomb went off in a market area housing grocery stores, vegetable shops, language schools and a computer centre.
It happened in the late afternoon as people, mainly women, were shopping for groceries and children were coming out of their classes.
The district is dominated by ethnic Hazaras, who mostly belong to the Shia Muslim minority in Pakistan.
Quetta police chief Mir Zubai Mehmood told the media that some 70kg to 80kg explosives had been planted inside a water tank that had been installed on a tractor trailer.
The blast brought down nearby buildings, and police said they feared some people remain trapped under the rubble.