Dirk Prinsloo refuses to enter plea

South African fugitive Dirk Prinsloo has refused to enter a plea in his criminal court case in Belarus, the Star newspaper reports. Prinsloo arrived in the Baranovichi high court armed with documents, notes and applications. Among them was a request that the judge and court recuse themselves as they were biased. This was denied.

The Star reported that Prinsloo is accused of the theft of a R14,700 diamond necklace from one of his several girlfriends. Prinsloo is also accused of the abuse and "torture" of another girlfriend. Prosecutors allege that he slapped her on the face and "delivered blows" to her body. Prinsloo would then take pictures of her injuries with which he would taunt her. Prinsloo is a fugitive from justice in South Africa. He jumped bail before a trial in which he and his girlfriend, Cezanne Visser, were accused of sexually abusing young girls. He was captured by police in Belarus after an attempted bank robbery.

Source: Times Live

The Long Shadow of Chernobyl

Twenty years after a nuclear reactor exploded, blanketing thousands of square miles with radiation, the catastrophe isn't over.

Twenty years ago this month, life in Pripyat came to a shuddering end. Before dawn on April 26, 1986, less than two miles south of what was then a city of 50,000, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant's number four reactor exploded. Thirty people died in the blast and fire or were exposed to lethal radiation. The destroyed hulk burned for ten days, contaminating tens of thousands of square miles in northern Ukraine, southern Belarus, and Russia's Bryansk region. It was the worst nuclear accident the world has ever seen.

Source: National Geographic