South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius was arrested Thursday after a woman was found shot to death in his home in Pretoria. Pistorius, 26, a double-amputee Olympic sprinter known as "Blade Runner," was taken into custody early Thursday after police responded to a call about a shooting at his home.

According to the the Associated Press, the woman killed was 30-year-old Reeva Steenkamp, a self-described “cover girl for FHM Models.” South African media reported that Steenkamp was Pistorius’s girlfriend and that he allegedly shot her after mistaking her for a burglar, an allegation that has not been confirmed. Officials apparently found a 9mm handgun in Pistorius’s home. He is expected to appear in court later Thursday.

The South African Paralympian -- a fan favorite -- took home two gold medals and a silver at the 2012 London Olympics.

Via:

Pistorius made history in London last year when he became the first double-amputee track athlete to compete in the Olympic Games. He is one of South Africa's and the world's most famous athletes.

Having had both his legs amputated below the knee before his first birthday because of a congenital condition, he campaigned for years to be allowed to compete against able-bodied athletes. Having initially been banned because of his carbon fiber blades — which critics said gave him an unfair advantage — he was cleared by sport's highest court in 2008 and allowed to run at the top events.

He competed in the 400 meters and on South Africa's 4x400 relay team at the London Games, making history after being have his selection confirmed on South Africa's team at the very last minute. He also retained his Paralympic title in the 400 meters in London.

A South African court is set to release 270 miners who were arrested on charges of murder after police there gunned down 34 of their co-workers, and wounded 78 others.

The release was due to start on Monday around 2:00pm (12:00 GMT), after the public prosecutor on Sunday provisionally dropped murder charges brought against the miners for the killings by police at platinum giant Lonmin's Marikana mine.

"We still have to establish what the numbers [due to be released] are and get a true reflection of what the intention of the prosecution was," Mapule Keetse, the lawyer for the detained, told the AFP news agency.

Murder had been added to the chargesheet against the miners last week, after they were originally charged with public violence, illegal gathering and attempted murder.

"The murder charge against the current 270 suspects, which was provisional anyway, will be formally withdrawn provisionally in court on their next court appearance," Nomgcobo Jiba, acting national director of prosecutions, announced on Sunday.

Jiba said other charges, including public violence, would remain.

The announcement of the release follows intense criticism from political parties, trade unions, civil society and legal experts.

The strike by the miners of Gold Fields' KDC gold mine is said to likely continue. The miners were seeking a wage increase to $1,500 a month.

More at AlJazeera.

"Anonymous" sources and DNA "evidence" that turns out to be false attempt to tie Occupy movement to a brutal murder.

On Tuesday, the local New York City NBC affiliate ran a story based on an unnamed source leaking information on a murder case, with the following headline, "DNA links Occupy protest scene to 2004 murder." There had been a break in the eight-years-cold investigation of the murder of Sarah Fox in Inwood Hill Park. DNA evidence recovered from her CD player, found near her corpse, matched DNA taken from a chain used to hold open a subway door in the fare strike conducted by wildcat transit union members and Occupy Wall Street activists.

The article appeared to be based on a single unnamed source, seemingly speaking from within the NYPD investigation, though not even the basis of the source's expertise was given.

Then it seems the police already had a main "person of interest" in the case, Dimitry Sheinman, a person with no ties to Occupy Wall Street (He's lived in South Africa until recently), well before the DNA evidence surfaced. At the end of the article it states that "Sheinman remains a leading person of interest."

So...the NYPD is collecting DNA from Occupy protest scenes? Outrageous, not to mention how incredibly expensive it would be to do DNA testing on all of any such samples.

Then on Wednesday, comes this New York Times report:

A link between DNA from the unsolved killing of Sarah Fox, a Juilliard student, in 2004 and DNA taken from a chain placed at the site of an Occupy Wall Street action in March may be the result of a laboratory error, according to two people briefed on the investigation.

One of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said it appeared that the DNA recovered from skin cells on the slain woman’s portable compact disc player and from the chain found this year came from a Police Department employee who works with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

And now Thursday, that same local NBC affiliate reports this:

Two sources said officials are investigating whether at an NYPD lab technician came into contact with both pieces of evidence, causing the match.

How would both samples be tainted unless they weren’t working from a database match, but from some manufactured reason to check the DNA samples side by side?

NBC also reports that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly was "Asked Wednesday why police tested the chains for forensic evidence, Kelly said, "If we are able to identify someone who committed a crime using forensic evidence, we are going to use it."'

Also a statement from an Occupy Wall Street spokesman, "I hope the person or persons who killed this young woman are found and brought to justice," said Bill Dobbs, a spokesman for Occupy Wall Street. "We don't know anything about it... I hope no one jumps to any conclusions."

As the media has already "gone there," I hope they also now continue to hammer Ray Kelley about his program of collecting DNA from protest sites, because that's the only actual scoop in this whole story.