Prosecutor Gerrie Nel Continues Arguments Against Bail As Oscar Pistorius Hearing Continues

Oscar Pistorius stands during his bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013.

PRETORIA, South Africa -- The fourth and likely final day of Oscar Pistorius' bail hearing opened on Friday, with the magistrate then to rule if the double-amputee athlete can be freed before trial or if he has to remain in custody over the shooting death of his girlfriend.

The prosecution is expected to complete its arguments opposing bail. The defense rested on Thursday, and Chief Magistrate Desmond Nair can issue a ruling on bail at any time after arguments finish.

Pistorius is charged with one count of premediated murder over the Feb. 14 killing of Reeva Steenkamp. He says the shooting was accidental because he thought she was a dangerous intruder inside his home.

Steenkamp's Valentine's Day killing has seized the world's attention and there was intense focus Friday on if Pistorius would be released, and if so, with what conditions.

Pistorius' hands trembled as he said "good morning, your worship" as the court session began in Pretoria Magistrate's Court, in South Africa's capital.

Pistorius' longtime coach Ampie Louw said before proceedings began that he is considering putting his runner back in training if he is granted bail to allow him to "get his mind kind of clear."

Louw said he realizes that the Olympic athlete might not be emotionally ready to give any thought to running.

"The change is that he is heartbroken, that is all," Louw said in the courtroom, surrounded by reporters and television cameras. "For me it is tough to see that. Not to be able to reach out and sit next to him and say `sorry, man, it was a terrible accident.' But I cannot do it, I must just sit here in court and that's all.

"The sooner he can start working the better." said Louw, who was the person who convinced the double amputee to take up track as a teenager a decade ago.

Nair will decide if Pistorius is freed with conditions or if he is held until trial. Pistorius faces the sternest bail conditions in South Africa because of the seriousness of the charge, meaning his defense lawyers have to prove there is an "exceptional" reason for him to be freed.

He has been held at a police station in Pretoria since last week, but suspects who are denied bail are typically held in a prison.

Defense lawyer Barry Roux argued on Thursday that the evidence backs up Pistorius' statement that he shot through a toilet door at his home because he mistook Steenkamp for an intruder, killing her by accident.

"I think there will be a level of shock in this country if he is not released (on bail)," Roux said in court.

Opposing bail, prosecutor Gerrie Nel argued Pistorius was too willing to shoot. The prosecution says Pistorius planned to kill his 29-year-old girlfriend, a model and budding reality TV star, after an argument in the early hours of Valentine's Day.

"The reason you fire four shots is to kill," Nel said.

Louw said he might put Pistorius – who overcame the amputation of his lower legs as a baby to compete at last year's London Olympics – back on a morning and afternoon training routine if he is freed, believing it might help him to be able to run track again.

"You must give him space," the coach said.

___

AP Sports Writer Gerald Imray contributed to this report from Johannesburg.

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Central Bankers At Crossroads As Global Economy Continues Sluggish Growth

* Draghi, Carney to hog spotlight

* ECB, BOE firmly on hold but unease stir over euro strength

* Trade data eyed for signs of reviving global demand

By Alan Wheatley, Global Economics Correspondent

LONDON, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Central banking is in a state of flux as policymakers from Tokyo to Washington ditch prevailing orthodoxies to try to grab a bigger share of a slow-growing global economic pie.

That's why the focus this week will be on what European Central Bank (ECB)Governor Mario Draghi has to say about the strength of the euro and what Canadian central bank chief Mark Carney might have in mind when he succeeds Mervyn King at the Bank of England (BOE) in July.

Draghi holds a news conference on Thursday after an ECB policy-setting meeting. On the same day, with delicious timing, Carney will be wrapping up testimony to British lawmakers just as the BoE announces the results of its own policy meeting.

The unanimous verdict of economists polled by Reuters is that neither bank will change its stance. The environment, however, is shifting, presenting both with unwanted challenges.

The ECB must keep a close eye on the euro, which has risen to a 14-month peak against the dollar and a 30-month high against the yen, reflecting the Federal Reserve's promise to keep buying bonds until U.S. unemployment falls much farther and the Bank of Japan's plan for a much looser monetary policy.

Exchange rates have much less of an impact on trade volumes than the state of external demand.

But, with global growth languishing, the relative performance of euro zone exporters will take a hit, said Daniel McCormack, a strategist at Macquarie in London.

"The euro could well be starting to cause a bit of pain already. It's moved up significantly, and in the context of what Japan's doing and the Fed's desire to get the dollar down or keep it low, it will have some impact," he said.

WHAT MIGHT THE ECB DO?

France has already complained about the euro's climb and Germany has blamed Japan for encouraging a weaker yen.

But Goldman Sachs said an ECB rate cut in response to a rising euro was still some way off, not least because the currency's vigour was largely due to improving economic and financial news from the euro zone.

The bank's economists did acknowledge, however, that the risks to its forecast that rates will stay on hold in 2013 were skewed to the downside.

"While global growth is picking up and demand growing, concerns about appreciation may be muted. But a strengthening euro in a stagnant global economy is likely to prompt questions about where the 'pain threshold' of German exporters to the level of the euro exchange rate lies," they said in a report.

Like the dollar, sterling has also fallen to a 14-month low against the euro.

British policymakers view a weaker pound as part of the solution to reviving the economy, which stagnated in 2012, and Goldman is among those who expect continued depreciation given the prospect of a more innovative and expansionary monetary policy under Carney.

McCormack reckons the shortfall in Britain's potential output that has opened up due to the recession is so great that the BOE might not need to contemplate tightening until 2018 - a full decade after the financial crisis climaxed.

But he said it was debatable whether Carney would prevail with his suggestion of targeting nominal gross domestic product, which implies permitting a temporary overshoot of inflation to allow growth to catch up.

"Most central bankers at the end of the day are in favour of strict inflation targeting. So he'll face a lot of intellectual pushback if he tries to get that through. But clearly there's the potential for some significant policy innovations once he's on board because he'll want to make his mark," McCormack said.

TRADE POLICY AND DATA IN SPOTLIGHT

Central banks are not alone in rummaging around for new ways to spur growth.

European Union leaders, who hold a summit on Thursday devoted mainly to the bloc's budget, are expected to call for maximum efforts to reach a series of bilateral free trade pacts to lower tariffs and cut red tape throttling exports.

The prospects for talks with the United States and Canada are still up in the air, but leaders are likely to endorse an early start to talks with Japan, according to diplomats.

Trade figures happen to be the core of this week's global economic releases.

Britain's gaping goods deficit is forecast to show a small improvement, due in part to sterling's weakness.

China's imports are projected to leap, which would bode well for world growth.

But, like most early-year data from Asia, interpretation will be treacherous because of calendar distortions: Lunar New Year, when factories in China close en masse, falls this year on Feb. 10, while last year the week-long holiday was in January.

America is likely to show a narrower trade deficit in December. Improving net exports would reinforce the view that the unexpected dip in GDP last quarter was due to fleeting factors and not the harbinger of a trend.

Bruce Kasman, an economist with JP Morgan in New York, said after Friday's good-but-not-great January jobs report that the economy was on track to expand about 2 percent this year despite fiscal drag that would lop at least 1.5 percent off growth.

Kasman said he was heartened by solid gains in labour income in recent months. Risks of a break-up of the euro, a hard landing in China and a plunge off the fiscal cliff in the United States had also been avoided.

All this pointed to steady if unspectacular U.S. growth.

"We don't have by any means the kind of growth that we would like, but we are setting ourselves up for a world where there's less risk and more sustainability," Kasman said on a conference call.

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Cynthia Jorge, Tom Cruise Not Likely To Last If Tabloid Attention Continues, Says Source

Is Cynthia Jorge, a 26-year-old Queens native and New York City restaurant manager, Tom Cruise's new girlfriend? That’s what the cover of In Touch magazine says. However, friends of Tom’s say after this cover, anything she might have had with Tom, is off.

The pair were spotted dancing at NYC’s Le Baron nightclub on Dec. 18, just two days after Tom met Cynthia after dining at Beauty & Essex, where she works.

“Cynthia used to work at Benjamin Steakhouse in Midtown before she got her job on the Lower East Side. And before that, she was a party promoter,” a friend of Cynthia’s tells The Huffington Post. “She has always liked press attention and wanted to be famous.”

In an interview from when she was working at the steakhouse, Cynthia said her favorite part of her job was "meeting new people, from CEOs to celebrities to just really interesting people in the industry. That and the food. I always say I’m so spoiled because every day I get to feast on some of the most amazing food in the city -- not to mention the best steak. I was a vegetarian for 10 years before starting to work with Benjamin’s, now I’ll never look back.”

However, it looks like all this attention will kill any chances of seeing much more of Tom. “He hates it when he thinks people leak stories about him to the press,” says one friend of the actor.

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