The Latest in Pistorius Case
WHITFIELD: Welcome back to AROUND THE WORLD. Here are the top stories right now.</s>HOLMES: Yeah, the head of the Syrian opposition coalition telling CNN, exclusively, that 21 U.N. peacekeepers are safe.</s>WHITFIELD: Earlier in the week, activists posted videos that showed armed Syrian men with U.N. trucks in the background.</s>HOLMES: Yeah, it was believed the rebels were initially holding them in a village in the Golan Heights, the U.N. personnel part of a force that is maintaining the ceasefire between Israel and Syria. It's all separate from the civil war.</s>WHITFIELD: The opposition is saying that the rebels removed the peacekeepers from an unsafe area and they want the Red Cross to come pick them up.</s>HOLMES: Let's go to Kenya now. There is a call there to stop the vote tallies in the presidential election. A political coalition led by Prime Minister Raila Odinga says the process is doctored.</s>WHITFIELD: Incomplete results show Odinga trailing his main opponent, Uhuru Kenyatta. Kenyatta's party made its own complaint about the election process on Wednesday.</s>HOLMES: Yeah, and meanwhile, the International Criminal Court has postponed the trial of Kenyatta it was going to hold on charges of crimes against humanity. A complex political situation.</s>WHITFIELD: It is, indeed, and it's been very complex for a while there in Kenya as it pertains to the presidential elections. So, at least one friend of Oscar Pistorius says the Olympic track star was quick to get angry, always ready to fight and always had a gun on him.</s>HOLMES: Yeah, a lot of information starting to come out that had been sort of bubbling along under the surface. Pistorius, of course, one of South Africa's biggest sporting heroes, running in the Olympics on those prosthetic legs.</s>WHITFIELD: He's charged with murdering his girlfriend, shooting her to death at his home on Valentine's Day. A man who ran in the same social circles as Pistorius tells CNN that he was a loose cannon.</s>MARK BATCHELOR, SOUTH AFRICAN SOCCER PLAYER: He would have a trip switch and, you know, he'd get violent and angry and he'd fight with people, cause a lot of problems. It's like you're waiting for something like this to happen, you know?</s>HOLMES: Yeah, now, Oscar Pistorius, of course, denies killing his girlfriend on purpose. He says that he mistook Reeva Steenkamp for an intruder.</s>WHITFIELD: And, of course, you'll only see this on CNN. You're about to hear more firsthand impressions of Pistorius from people close to Reeva Steenkamp. Incredibly, some members of her family are willing to forgive Oscar Pistorius.</s>HOLMES: Now, Drew Griffin is in Cape Town, South Africa.</s>DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: The interview took place inside the Cape Town home. Reeva often stayed in the back room of her cousin's, Kim Martin's. It is where we interviewed her and Reeva's uncle. Has the family now realized emotionally what has happened?</s>MIKE STEENKAMP, REEVA STEENKAMP'S UNCLE: You sort of wake up in the morning expecting Reeva to give a phone call.</s>KIM MARTIN, REEVA STEENKAMP'S COUSIN: It's easier to deal with it if you don't concentrate on anything else other than the fact she's not here and, at the end of the day, she's not coming back.</s>GRIFFIN: What the family says it does not want to concentrate on is just why Reeva Steenkamp is not coming back She died in the home and at the hands of her boyfriend, Oscar Pistorius. He is charged with murder, awaiting trial for what he has called an accidental shooting. Kim Martin says she was as close to Reeva as a sister. There were no secrets. She knew the couple were dating. She also knew Reeva was not in love.</s>MARTIN: And I knew that in time she would chat to me about it.</s>GRIFFIN: But she never did?</s>MARTIN: No, she never did.</s>GRIFFIN: January 2nd, on Small Bay in Cape Town, Kim and her daughters finally did meet him at this seaside cafe. It was the only time she ever met Oscar Pistorius. He barely made an impact.</s>MARTIN: It wasn't long enough to form an opinion on his personality, you know? Typical Reeva, her and I were chatting and the kids and, what I saw of him and what -- the bit that we did speak, he was nice. He did seem like a nice guy.</s>GRIFFIN: You still think that?</s>MARTIN: I don't really want to comment on that.</s>GRIFFIN: In what now seems an ominous event, we know Reeva's own mother had met Oscar Pistorius, too, at least by phone. Oscar and Reeva were driving on a highway and Oscar, prone to fast cars, was supposedly speeding.</s>STEENKAMP: She phoned her mom and said to her mom, Mom, Oscar's speeding, so June took the phone and said, let me speak to Oscar, and said to him, Oscar, hey, listen, that's my precious and my only daughter, my precious daughter, and that's everything. That's my angel and you better slow down. Otherwise, I will get the Mafia on to you afterwards, and Reeva said afterwards, Mom, he slowed down.</s>GRIFFIN: Now, the family, including Reeva's parents, Barry and June, are trying to come to grips with a lot of tales from the past, former friends of Pistorius speaking out about anger, rage and guns; early signs that police may have mishandled the crime scene; and the fact that Pistorius, who's admitted killing Reeva in an accidental shooting, is now free from jail, awaiting trial.</s>MARTIN: The less I hear about it, all the other stuff, the better.</s>STEENKAMP: None of us are going to be represented at the court in the trial. None of us in family are going to go up. We won't be present. I can tell you that now. And for that reason, it's not about the court case. It's about Reeva.</s>GRIFFIN: It would be too painful, but choking back tears, Mike Steenkamp did say he one day does want to meet the man who killed his niece.</s>STEENKAMP: I would like to be face to face with him and forgive him, forgive him what he's done. And that way I can find what's probably more peace with the situation, but tell him face to face.</s>GRIFFIN: and you would forgive him, Mike, whether this was a tragic accident or whether this was ...</s>STEENKAMP: Whatever the outcome, I feel that my belief, and if Christ could forgive when he died on the cross, why can't I?</s>GRIFFIN: You must have seen the reports about things in his past that have come out. Is there any reaction to any of that?</s>STEENKAMP: The least I know from the outside, the better, for myself, that right or wrong, I'm still focused on the one thing is forgiveness and I'm not going change from that.</s>GRIFFIN: As for what happens to Oscar Pistorius, it doesn't matter, says Steenkamp. Nothing will bring Reeva back. Drew Griffin, CNN, Cape Town, South Africa.</s>HOLMES: Stoic, isn't it ...</s>WHITFIELD: It really is.</s>HOLMES: ... just his faith?</s>WHITFIELD: And it's tough just to see the family and you know how families are torn about that case, and the details that continue to just kind of trickle out.</s>HOLMES: Horrible stuff. Guess what.</s>WHITFIELD: Yes?</s>HOLMES: The Dow, up again.</s>WHITFIELD: Isn't it remarkable?</s>HOLMES: Look at it. It's up 0.3 percent again today.</s>WHITFIELD: Lots of signs of encouragement on the markets, we'll take a closer look after this.